General Bipin Rawat, India’s first CDS, was on a mission to modernise the military was died in a plane crash.

Why in news?

• In the untimely death of General Bipin Rawat in a helicopter crash in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, India has lost a fine soldier who rose to become the country’s most senior general as its first Chief of Defence Staff.
• All but one of the 14 people on board were killed in the crash of the Mi-17V5 transporter, which was ferrying them from Sulur air base to the Staff College at Wellington.

About GENERAL BIPIN RAWAT

• Rawat, who was Army chief until December 2019, when he was elevated to the newly created office of CDS, was a vastly experienced officer, having served in both the Northern and Eastern commands.
• He was involved in counter-insurgency operations in both Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, and his battalion was among those deployed along the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh during the 1987 clash with the People’s Liberation Army in Sumdorong Chu.
• Rawat started his career as an officer in the Gorkhas and rose to command 5/11 Gorkha Rifles, the battalion his father Lt Gen L S Rawat also commanded.