Ex-CDS General Anil Chauhan takes charge of Vivekananda International Foundation
Former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan has taken charge as director of the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), marking his return to the national security and strategic policy space just months after retiring from India's top military post.
Chauhan assumed charge of the New Delhi-based public policy think tank on October 5. VIF welcomed the former CDS, saying his appointment marks a new chapter for the organisation, while also acknowledging the tenure of former Deputy National Security Adviser Dr Arvind Gupta, who previously headed the foundation.advertisement❮❯ Read Full StoryFROM INDIA'S TOP MILITARY POST TO POLICY THINK TANKChauhan, India's second CDS, retired on May 30 after serving for more than three years as CDS, Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
He was appointed CDS on September 30, 2022, after serving as Eastern Army Commander and Director General of Military Operations. During his tenure, he played a key role in driving military reforms, jointness and the proposed theatre command structure.
A decorated officer, Chauhan was commissioned into the 11 Gorkha Rifles in 1981. He went on to command an infantry division in Baramulla, a corps in the Northeast and later the Eastern Command. He has been awarded the PVSM, AVSM, VM and VSM.WHY VIF ROLE MATTERS
The new assignment puts Chauhan at the helm of an organisation that works at the intersection of national security, foreign policy and geopolitics.
Founded in 2009 by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, VIF engages with the diplomatic community and prepares policy briefs and research on strategic affairs, national security, geopolitics and civilisational issues. Its executive committee is chaired by S Gurumurthy.
VIF said Chauhan's experience in national security, defence policy, geopolitics and military transformation would strengthen its research and strategic dialogue.
The appointment has also drawn attention because Doval himself had headed VIF before becoming National Security Adviser in 2014, adding to interest around Chauhan's next role in India's strategic policy ecosystem.- Ends
Born in Pauri district of Uttarakhand, Manjeet Negi did his early schooling from his village school near Rishikesh and then moved to the town for secondary education. Later, he did his graduation from Hemavati Nandan Bahuguna University. In the year 2000, he did his journalism diploma from Kurukshetra University and started his career with Doordarshan News and started reporting on defence forces from the 2001 Bhuj earthquake. In his career as a defence correspondent, Negi has had the opportunity to report exclusives from world's highest battlefield Siachen Glacier in the north to the Andamans in the South and from the Rann of Kutch in the west to the Arunachal Pradesh border with China in the East.
A regular news-breaker on matters of national security and military affairs, Negi considers the coverage of he Kedarnath tragedy of 2013 as the highest point of his career. During the grave disaster at Kedarnath in June 2013, Manjeet Negi was the first and only TV reporter who walked for 55 Kms on the hilly track to reach the Kedarnath shrine. Spending his first night in the complex amidst several hundred dead bodies around him, Negi says he saw Lord Kedar in his dream. After the Kedarnath disaster, the writer got another opportunity to cover another disaster in the Nepal earthquake in 2015 for the Aaj Tak channel. During the reporting of that disaster for about 10 days, the writer got an opportunity to witness and report the large scale relief and rescue operations undertaken by the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force.
Besides reporting, he is also a skilled mountaineer. With Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and Garhwal Regiment, he has undertaken mountaineering expedition to Satopanth via Gomukh. Accompanying the Mount Manaslu mountaineering expedition of a Garhwal Regiment unit, he also reported about the expedition. He has also scaled the Dronagiri mountain near Joshimath in Uttarakhand. Manjeet Negi has also been honoured with a special award by the Union Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh for his reporting of Kedarnath disaster. He was awarded the best reporter award for his coverage of Nepal earthquake by India Today Group. At present, the writer has been working as Editor with Aajtak Channel of India Today Group.
