Air Marshal AR Ghandhi has been appointed the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command, IAF. He inspected a guard of honour at Western Air Command Headquarters at Subroto Park, New Delhi. He was commissioned in the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force in 1963 and flew over 5500 sorties.

As a young pilot officer, Air Marshal Ghandhi flew Hunter during the 1965 Indo-Pak war and was awarded Vir Chakra for having shot down a Pakistani F-86 Sabre aircraft in a combat mission over Halwara while flying with the "Battle Axes". During the 1971 operations, he flew MIG-21 aircraft with the "Eighth Pursoot". As a Fighter Combat Leader he has served two tenures with the Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment. The Air Marshal commanded the ‘Flying Lances’ squadron and subsequently an operational base operating the Mirage-2000.

An alumnus of the College of Air Warfare College of Defence Management and National Defence College, Air Marshal Gandhi’s appointments included Directing Staff at Army College of Combat (Mhow), Director Air Staff Inspection, Additional Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Operations), Assistant, Chief of Air Staff (Personnel Officers), Commandant, College of Air Warfare and Senior Air Staff Officer at two operational Commands—South-Western and Western Air Command prior to his appointment as AOC-in-C, Western Air Command. He is also a recipient of Ati Vishisht Seva Medal.

-Sqn Ldr Bart D’souza

The minimum educational qualifications required for recruitment to various soldier categories have been revised.

For Soldier (General Duty), the minimum qualification required is matric with 45 per cent in the aggregate while for Soldier (Technical), it is 10+2/Intermediate pass with 50 per cent in aggregate in arts, commerce or science
groups. In addition, candidates should have secured a minimum of 40 per cent marks in each subject.

For Soldier (Technical Aviation), candidates should have passed 10+2 with English, maths and physics as compulsory subjects and secured a minimum of 50 per cent marks in the aggregate or a three years diploma in mechanical, electronics or automobile engineering or computer science.

Soldier (Nursing Assistant) should be 10+2/Intermediate pass in science with physics, chemistry, Biology and English and a minimum of 50 per cent marks in the aggregate.

Soldier (clerk/Store Keeper Technical) should be 10+2/Intermediate in arts, commerce or science with English and a minimum of 50 per cent marks in the aggregate. They should have also secured a minimum of 40 per cent marks in each subject. Individuals with proficiency in computer and typing will be given additional weightage of 20 per cent bonus marks on the total scored in the written test.

Non-matriculates too can join the Indian Army as Soldier Tradesmen or Soldier Non-Matric General Duty. They should have passed class 8 and the certificate and mark-sheet should be countersigned by the District Education Officer.

- Wg Cdr SN Mukerjee

The College of Materials Management (CMM), Jabalpur is a premier institute, imparting training to defence personnel as well as civilians in the field of materials management. The CMM is also conducting MBA courses in its Faculty of Management Studies (FOMS). In a span of about seven years, FOMS has also carved a niche for itself and has become a reputed business institution. The CMM has been striving to bring a paradigm shift in its approach to training and become a centre for excellence.

It is, in this context, that the college had offered itself for the assessment by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). NAAC is an autonomous institution of the University Grants Commission (UGC). It had constituted a peer team headed by Prof HS Soch, the former Vice-Chancellor of the Guru Nanak Dev University to assess the CMM. The peer team had carried out a detailed evaluation of all facets of the College functioning.

Based on the assessment of the peer team, Executive Committee of NAAC has approved accreditation of the CMM with ‘Five Stars’-the highest rating. This accreditation has put CMM on the map of the reputed business institutions all over the world. It surely enhances the prestige of the institution in the academic world and inspires its students to achieve higher academic goals.

input : Col CJS Dhillon

The Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions), Allahabad has launched a website http://pcdapension.nic.in

The features of this website are :

General Information contains information about PCDA (P).

Know your Pension gives you information about pension in respect of ‘Commissioned Officers’, ‘PBOR’ and also ‘Defence civilians’ including State Forces pensioners. It gives rule position, model calculations on all types of pension gratuity, commutation and family pension. It also allows post 1.1.96 retirees to calculate their pension on line. After filling in the requisite details, one can check pension through the website. Major changes in the pensionary entitlements over the last four decades are also given.

Common Problems of Pensioners gives solutions to some of the common problems faced by pensioners viz. CDA, medical allowance, PDA change, LTA payment etc. It also gives guidelines for NRI pensioners.

Grievance Redressal gives the various means through which your grievances can be sent to Pr C.D.A. (P) office.

Pension Payment deals with various problems relating to payment of pension. It contains the forms which can be downloaded, printed and sent to the concerned office when required.

What’s New gives information on the latest government orders and information about pension adalats.

One can lodge a complaint on-line for faster redressal of grievances or just give feedback on the guest book/feed form, available on this
website. The website also contains guidelines/instructions for the Pension Disbursing Agencies, Record Offices (PBOR cases), Head of Offices (for Defence civilian’s claims) and for CDA (O) (Commissioned Officer’s claims).

As I stepped in Ladakh, the eternal rows of mountain ranges, the high peaks that kiss the skies, the lush green valleys scattered like oases, smiled at me. I landed at Leh in the staging camp. Within a few minutes, I was told that my unit truck would be arriving soon to pick me up. Shortly afterwards, a Jamadar Sahib peeped into my tent and started checking my bonafides. Our truck thereafter took for a start and we reached our destination.

It was terribly dark. Hav Ramakrishnan immediately caught my eye. He rushed towards my luggage and started arranging things. While receiving my joining report, our Company Commander said, "Take rest for a day and try to acclimatise first. Nothing to worry."

Days started to roll on. From 4 am to 8 pm we were busy with our job assignments. The unit radio was our inseparable companion. The free postal envelops supplied to us were a boon, as writing farmaish for Vividh Bharati’s programme Sainiko ki Farmish was almost a rage among us. The daily newspapers were the food for thoughts. The most favourite pastime we had was the music competitions in the evenings.

Ramdass in his melodious voice sprang a surprise with Yechatanundi Veecheno Ee Chhallani Gali, the famous song from the Telugu movie Appu Chesi Pappu Koodu. Since most of the audience were Hindi-speaking, they could not understand the meaning of ‘gali’. Are gali kyon deta hai? Madan retorted. ‘You hear, my dear this gali is breeze, not abuse’ Ramdass convinced. A roaring laughter followed. It was then Sinha’s chance. Hav Ale, being a veteran, started narrating his experience of the second World War. Sunday excursions were a pleasant feature. The Buddhist monuments, the small pagodas and a nearby Buddhist cave temple gave us ample scope to quench our thirst for discovery.

What is that basic force in the Army which unites one and all? That Jamadar Sahib was a Punjabi, Hav Ramakrishnan a Keralite, Ale a Maharashtrian and Ramdass, an Andhraite but our mission was one. We always shared our joys and sorrows and it was a unity in diversity.