By Col Manoj Batra (Retd) · SSB faculty, The Cavalier · Senior GTO (retd), 20 SSB
The Indian Army is the land component of the armed forces and by far the largest of the three services. It guards the Line of Control and the Line of Actual Control at heights where the air is thin, fights in the plains and the Thar, and is the service that the NDA, CDS, ACC and TES routes lead to for most young officers. Every Army interview board and every defence GK paper starts from the same base of facts: where the Army came from, who commands it and how it is organised.
This page is the front door to the Army section of our Defence GK library: origins, chain of command, identity, an organisation chart, and a guide to every page in the section.
Origins: From Presidency Armies to the Republic
The Army grew out of the three armies of the East India Company, one each for the Bengal, Madras and Bombay Presidencies. The Army's own history pages record the key steps.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1895 | The Presidency Armies were abolished and the Indian Army was divided into four commands: Punjab (which included the North-West Frontier), Bengal, Madras (which included Burma) and Bombay (which included Sind, Quetta and Aden) |
| Nov 1902 – 1903 | Lord Kitchener becomes Commander-in-Chief and reorganises the Army in India; in 1903 battalions are renamed by recruiting class (Punjabis, Sikhs, Rajputs and so on) |
| 1919–1922 | After the First World War, Indian cadets are trained for commissions, the commands are regrouped as Northern, Eastern, Western and Southern, and the regimental system is introduced in 1922 |
| 15 Aug 1947 | Independence and Partition: the old Indian Army is divided between India and Pakistan, with its assets shared under a complicated scheme |
| 15 Jan 1949 | General K.M. Cariappa takes over from General Sir Roy Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief, and becomes the first Indian head of the Army |
| 26 Jan 1950 | India becomes a republic. The President is Supreme Commander of the armed forces and the Army serves the Republic |
| 1955 | The title Commander-in-Chief is replaced by Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) under the Commanders-in-Chief (Change in Designation) Act, 1955, in force from 7 May 1955 (many books give 1 April 1955) |
Books differ between 1895 and Kitchener's 1903 reforms. The Army's own history puts the abolition of the Presidency armies in 1895 and Kitchener's arrival in November 1902, and UPSC follows official history. Also, 1895 is not 1947: the Army was already one Indian Army half a century before independence, and in 1947 it was divided.
Army HQ, the Chief and the Chain of Command
Army Headquarters is in New Delhi. It is the Army's staff and policy centre, within the Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence (Army). It plans, raises, trains and equips; the commands fight.
- Chief of the Army Staff (COAS): Gen Dhiraj Seth has held the appointment since 30 June 2026. The COAS commands the Army, advises the government on land warfare and sits on the Chiefs of Staff Committee. Past holders are on Chiefs of the Army Staff.
- Vice Chief of the Army Staff (VCOAS): Lt Gen Sandeep Jain has held the post since 1 July 2026. The Vice Chief is the Chief's deputy at Army HQ.
- Chief of Defence Staff (CDS): Gen N S Raja Subramani heads the Department of Military Affairs and is the government's principal military adviser. The CDS does not command the Army. See the CDS page and the wider tri-services section.
The Army's site sets out the chain: the President is Supreme Commander, and executive control passes through the Cabinet, the Raksha Mantri and the service chiefs. The Ministry of Defence handles personnel, finance and resources.
The COAS runs the Army. The CDS chairs the Chiefs of Staff Committee but has no operational command of any service. The President is the Supreme Commander.
Identity: Motto, Emblem, Ethos and Army Day
Motto. The Army's motto is widely given as "Service before Self" (in Sanskrit, Seva Paramo Dharma). The Army's own ethos page does not set out a formal motto line: it uses the words "Service before Self" for the attitude its values build, and gives "One for all and all for one" as the motto of esprit de corps.
Emblem. The Army's emblem is the National Emblem above two crossed swords. Each regiment and corps has its own badge and colours. The Army site names three things a soldier serves: Naam (honour), Namak (loyalty) and Nishan (the flag and insignia of unit and nation).
Army Day, 15 January. On 15 January 1949 Lieutenant General K.M. Cariappa succeeded General Sir Roy Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief, and became the first Indian to head the Army. Cariappa was later made a Field Marshal. Since 2023 the parade has moved out of Delhi in turn: Bengaluru, Lucknow and Pune came first, and the 2026 parade was held in Jaipur.
- 15 Jan 2026: the 78th Army Day parade at Jaipur was, per PIB, the fourth outside Delhi, the first outside a cantonment (Mahal Road) and the first hosted by South Western Command. Bhairav Battalion contingents, lean units built for rapid operations along the borders, marched for the first time.
- 2026: the Army's theme of the year is the Year of Networking and Data Centricity (the Army's site writes "Networks"). It builds on the "Decade of Transformation" that the Army's site says began in 2023.
- 30 Jun 2026: a new Chief of the Army Staff took charge; see our explainer on the COAS and the command structure.
Size, Role and Strength
The Army's role is to safeguard national interests against external aggression and internal subversion. Its official tasks are war fighting, managing internal threats, force projection, peacekeeping or military assistance to friendly countries, and disaster relief for civil authorities. Its own site lists the terrain as glacial heights, mountain jungle and desert.
The cleanest official strength figures are those the Ministry of Defence gave the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in 2025, as tabulated by PRS India:
| Category | Sanctioned | In position | Shortfall | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Officers | 50,538 | 42,095 | 8,443 (17%) | July 2024 |
| JCOs and other ranks (PBORs) | 11,97,520 | 11,05,110 | 92,410 (8%) | October 2024 |
| Total | about 12.48 lakh | about 11.47 lakh | about 1.01 lakh | 2024 |
Adding the officer and soldier rows gives a sanctioned total of about 12.48 lakh, the figure often quoted as the Army's "active strength", and about 11.47 lakh actually in position. The soldier ranks make up over 95% of the sanctioned strength, so the Army is overwhelmingly a force of jawans and JCOs led by a small officer cadre. Entry for soldiers is changing: see our explainer on the Agnipath enrolment pathway. The part-time reserve is on our Territorial Army page, and women's entry on women in defence forces.
Websites quote anything from 11.5 lakh to 12.5 lakh for "Indian Army strength", because some give the sanctioned figure and some the number actually in position. The figures above are the official ones for 2024. UPSC follows official figures, so when a question gives a number, check whether it asks for sanctioned or actual strength. We review the table whenever the Ministry publishes new data.
How the Army Is Built: HQ to Battalion
Army HQ sits above seven commands: six operational and one training command, ARTRAC. Operational commands hold corps, corps hold divisions, divisions hold brigades and brigades hold battalions. The tree shows the officer in charge at each level.
- Army Headquarters, New DelhiChief of the Army Staff · General
- 6 operational commandsNorthern · Western · Eastern · Southern · South Western · Central · GOC-in-C, Lt Gen
- CorpsGOC · Lt Gen
- DivisionGOC · Maj Gen
- BrigadeCommander · Brigadier
- Battalion (regiment's fighting unit)Commanding Officer · Colonel
- BrigadeCommander · Brigadier
- DivisionGOC · Maj Gen
- CorpsGOC · Lt Gen
- Army Training Command (ARTRAC)Training and doctrine · GOC-in-C, Lt Gen
- 6 operational commandsNorthern · Western · Eastern · Southern · South Western · Central · GOC-in-C, Lt Gen
A battalion is not a regiment: the regiment (for example the Sikh Regiment) is the parent family that raises many battalions, and the battalion is the unit that deploys. The commands page gives each command's headquarters, and the hierarchy section goes level by level.
The Navy and Air Force organise differently: see the Indian Navy and Indian Air Force sections. The plan to merge single-service commands is on theatre commands, and ranks across services are lined up on rank equivalence.
Arms and Services: Who Does What
Soldiers belong to an arm or a service. The usual grouping is:
| Group | Arms and services | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Combat arms | Infantry, Armoured Corps, Mechanised Infantry, Regiment of Artillery | Close with and destroy the enemy: fighting on foot, in tanks and infantry combat vehicles, and with guns and rockets |
| Combat support arms | Army Air Defence, Corps of Engineers, Corps of Signals, Army Aviation | Protect the force from the air, build and clear obstacles, keep communications up, give air mobility and fire support |
| Services | Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, Corps of EME, Army Medical Corps, Army Dental Corps, Remount and Veterinary Corps, Army Education Corps, Judge Advocate General's Department and others | Supply, ammunition, repair, medical care, remounts, education and legal support: the logistics tail that keeps the fighting arms in the field |
Books draw the line between combat arms, combat support and services slightly differently, so check the question's wording. The combat arms and services pages cover each corps.
Guided Tour: Every Page in the Army Section
Read in this order if you are starting from zero.
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Army Commands | The seven commands with headquarters, year of raising and type, plus the common "which one is not a command" trap |
| Army Hierarchy | Section to command, with the commander's rank and rough strength at each level; leads to the corps, divisions and brigades pages |
| Combat Arms | Armoured Corps, Mechanised Infantry, Artillery, Army Air Defence, Engineers, Signals and Aviation, with the day and centre of each |
| Army Services | ASC, AOC, EME, AMC and the other services, including the "which corps supplies ammunition" trap |
| Army Regiments | The infantry regiments with raising year, regimental centre, motto and war cry, and the regiment versus battalion distinction |
| Ranks and Insignia | Officer, JCO and other-rank badges described in a table, the Field Marshals, and a link to pay at each rank |
| Weapon Systems | Tanks, guns, infantry weapons and Army Aviation, and how much is indigenous and how much imported |
| Special Forces | Para (SF), the Ghatak platoons, selection and probation, and how the Army's special forces differ from the NSG, MARCOS and Garud |
| Training Establishments | IMA, the Officers Training Academies, Infantry School, the high-altitude and jungle warfare schools and the engineering colleges |
| Chiefs of the Army Staff | The full list with tenures, Cariappa as the first Indian chief, the 1955 change of title, and the Field Marshals |
If a particular command matters to you, go straight to its own page: Northern, Western, Eastern, Southern, Central, South Western and Army Training Command. Our current-affairs notes on the defence topic page show how the structure keeps changing, for example the new Bhairav battalions explained in our report on Exercise Mountain Guardian.
Exam pins
- Army Day: 15 January, for Cariappa taking over in 1949 from the last British C-in-C, General Sir Roy Bucher.
- Cariappa was the first Indian Commander-in-Chief and later a Field Marshal; the title changed to COAS in 1955.
- Presidency Armies abolished in 1895; four commands (Punjab, Bengal, Madras, Bombay) formed; Kitchener took charge in November 1902.
- The Army has seven commands: six operational and one training (ARTRAC).
- Chain of command: Army HQ, command, corps, division, brigade, battalion. A battalion belongs to a regiment but is not the same thing.
- Rank in charge: Army commander and corps commander are Lt Gen, division Maj Gen, brigade Brigadier.
- The President is Supreme Commander; the COAS heads the Army; the CDS has no operational command of any service.
- Motto (as usually given): Service before Self. The three Ns of a soldier: Naam, Namak, Nishan.
- Soldier ranks are over 95% of the Army's sanctioned strength (about 12.48 lakh, 2024).
- Army theme of 2026: Year of Networking and Data Centricity. The 2026 Army Day parade was at Jaipur, hosted by South Western Command.
- The Territorial Army is under the Ministry of Defence, as are the NCC and the Coast Guard.
Asked in past papers
UPSC asks about the Army in two ways: a plain recall question on a person or date, and a current-affairs question tied to the Army's own announcements.
Who among the following was the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army of independent India?
(a) S. M. Srinagesh (b) K. M. Cariappa (c) K. S. Thimayya (d) K. S. Rajendrasinhji
Answer: (b). Cariappa took over on 15 January 1949 from General Sir Roy Bucher. The other three names all became Army chiefs later, which is what makes them tempting.
Which one of the following is the 'Theme of the Year 2026' of Indian Army?
(a) Anchored in Tradition, Sailing into Self-Reliance and Innovation (b) Year of Networking and Data Centricity (c) Achook, Abhedya va Sateek (d) Samarth Bharat, Saksham Sena
Answer: (b). The Army announced 2026 as the Year of Networking and Data Centricity (its own site writes "Networks"). The other options are slogans from other occasions, so do not choose by how martial a line sounds.
The Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School of Indian Army is situated at :
(a) Dehradun (b) Vairengte (c) Gulmarg (d) Mhow
Answer: (b). The school is at Vairengte in Mizoram. Gulmarg has the High Altitude Warfare School, and Mhow has the Infantry School, so each wrong option is a real Army training centre.
Which of the following are administered under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India? 1. Territorial Army 2. Hydrographic surveys and preparation of navigational charts 3. National Cadet Corps 4. All matters relating to Coast Guard Organization
(a) 1, 2, 3 and 4 (b) 1, 3 and 4 only (c) 2 and 4 only (d) 1 and 3 only
Answer: (a). All four sit under the Ministry of Defence. A candidate who thinks only of the Army or only of the Navy drops one statement.
Plain recall (first Indian chief, school locations) is worth a mark each time and never changes, so learn it once from our chiefs and training pages. The current-affairs questions (theme of the year, exercises, new battalions) change every cycle, so keep up with our daily defence notes and practise on the NDA and CDS past-paper pages.
Practice MCQs (with answers)
- The Presidency Armies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay were abolished in
- 1857
- 1895
- 1920
- 1947
- Army Day is observed on 15 January because on that date in 1949
- the Indian Army was first raised
- the Constitution was adopted
- the Army's four commands were formed
- an Indian officer first took over as Commander-in-Chief from a British officer
- Which of the following is the Army's training command?
- ARTRAC
- Central Command
- South Western Command
- Northern Command
- Arranged from the smallest to the largest, the Army's fighting formations run
- battalion, division, brigade, corps
- brigade, battalion, corps, division
- battalion, brigade, division, corps
- battalion, brigade, corps, division
- Which of the following is usually classed as a combat support arm, not a service?
- Army Service Corps
- Corps of EME
- Corps of Signals
- Army Medical Corps
- The 78th Army Day parade in January 2026 was the first Army Day parade to be held
- at Rajpath in Delhi
- outside a cantonment area, in the heart of a city
- in a coastal city
- with the Navy in charge
1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c, 5-c, 6-b. Q1: 1857 is the Revolt, 1947 is Partition; 1895 is the abolition of the Presidency armies. Q4: a battalion sits in a brigade, a brigade in a division and a division in a corps. Q5: Signals is combat support, while ASC, EME and AMC are services. Q6: PIB records Jaipur as the first Army Day parade outside a cantonment; it was the fourth held outside Delhi.
Where to Go Next
For the career side, read career in the Indian Army, the pay by rank page and the ACC and TES routes. Boards ask "know your service", so read our SSB interview tips with this page open, then wars and operations and defence days. Our NDA coaching batches cover defence GK with weekly tests and SSB training, and the CDS course does the same for graduates.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the Chief of the Army Staff of India?
Gen Dhiraj Seth has been the Chief of the Army Staff since 30 June 2026. The COAS heads the Indian Army from Army Headquarters in New Delhi and sits on the Chiefs of Staff Committee. The President is the Supreme Commander of the armed forces.
Why is Army Day celebrated on 15 January?
On 15 January 1949, Lieutenant General K.M. Cariappa took over from General Sir Roy Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief, and became the first Indian head of the Army. The date marks the moment the Army came under Indian leadership. Cariappa was later promoted to Field Marshal.
How many commands does the Indian Army have?
The Indian Army has seven commands. Six are operational (Northern, Western, Eastern, Southern, South Western and Central) and one, Army Training Command or ARTRAC, handles training and doctrine. Each operational command is headed by a Lieutenant General called the GOC-in-C.
What is the difference between a regiment and a battalion in the Indian Army?
A regiment is the parent family of an arm, such as the Sikh Regiment or the Rajputana Rifles, which raises and trains many battalions. A battalion, usually under a Colonel, is the unit that actually deploys and fights. Regiments are not fighting formations, and brigades and divisions are made of battalions from different regiments.
How big is the Indian Army?
Ministry of Defence data given to the Parliamentary Standing Committee in 2025 shows a sanctioned strength of about 12.48 lakh, made up of 50,538 officers and 11,97,520 JCOs and other ranks. The number actually in position in 2024 was about 11.47 lakh. The strength is revised each year, so check the latest official figure before quoting it.
More in Defence GK
Sources: indianarmy.nic.in/KnowYourArmy/know-your-army-main/india-under-the-crown-know-your-army · pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2214965®=3&lang=1 · static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2024/jan/doc2024115298901.pdf · prsindia.org/budgets/parliament/demand-for-grants-2026-27-analysis-defence
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