List of National Defence Academy alumni

The Indian National Defence Academy is the joint services academy of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three armed forces train together before beginning pre-commission training at their respective service academies, Indian Naval Academy, and Air Force Academy. Established in 1954 and located in vicinity of Khadakwasla Dam, near Pune, it is the world's first tri-service academy.
NDA is not the only officer training academy in India. Besides NDA, which is tri-service academy, the Indian Army's IMA, Officers Training Academy, Army Cadet College, the Indian Navy's INA, and the Air Force's AFA are the other officer training academies of India. Besides cadets from NDA, these academies accept cadets separately from several streams. Apart from these, the Indian Army has three establishments for technical stream which include College of Military Engineering, Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, and Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering. Although cadets are imparted technical training at these three academies, they are commissioned through OTA, Gaya. Excluding all these establishments, which are meant for combat arms, the Indian Army has other commissioning academies for support services such as the Medical Corps, and the Judge Advocate General's Department for example.
Similarly, the Aeronautical Engineers and Aeronautical Engineers are trained at the Air Force Technical College at Jalahalli, Bengaluru; the Meteorological branch officer cadets get their training at Air Force Administrative College, Coimbatore.
NDA alumni have led and participated in every major conflict in which the Indian Armed Forces have been called into action since the academy was founded. Alumni include three Param Vir Chakra recipients and twelve Ashoka Chakra recipients. The NDA has produced 36 service chiefs of staff, including the incumbent chiefs of staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Chiefs of staff

, the academy has produced 2 Chiefs of Defence Staff, 15 Chiefs of the Army Staff, 13 Chiefs of the Naval Staff and 11 Chiefs of the Air Staff. All incumbent service chiefs are NDA alumni.
Chief of Defence Staff

S.No	Name	Course Number	Notes
1	General Bipin Rawat	53	First CDS
2	General Anil Chauhan		Incumbent

Gallantry award recipients

Wartime

, 3 Param Vir Chakras, 32 Maha Vir Chakras and 163 Vir Chakras have been awarded to NDA officers.

[Param Vir Chakra]

Three officers from NDA have posthumously received the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest wartime gallantry award. All three were from the Army.

S.No	Name	Course Number	Unit	Year
1	Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria	9	3/1 Gorkha Rifles	1961
2	Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal	38	17 Poona Horse	1971
3	Captain Manoj Kumar Pandey	90	1/11 Gorkha Rifles	1999

[Maha Vir Chakra]

32 NDA officers have received the Maha Vir Chakra, India's second-highest wartime gallantry award: two from the Air Force, one from the Navy and the remainder from the Army. Ten received the award posthumously. Air Force squadron leader Padmanabha Gautam is the only NDA officer to receive the award twice, in 1965 and 1971.

S.No	Name	Course Number	Unit	Year
1	Lieutenant Colonel Raj Mohan Vohra	1	Armoured Corps	1971
2	Lieutenant Colonel Hanut Singh	1	Armoured Corps	1971
3	Lieutenant Colonel Kulwant Singh Pannu	1	Infantry	1971
4	Lieutenant Colonel Narinder Singh Sandhu	2	Infantry	1971
5	Wing Commander Padmanabha Gautam	3	Indian Air Force	1965, 1971
6	Major Sushil Kumar Mathur	3	Artillery	1965
7	Lieutenant Colonel Sukhjit Singh	4	Armoured Corps	1971
8	Second Lieutenant Shamsher Singh	5	Infantry	1971
9	Lieutenant Colonel Raj Kumar Singh	5	Infantry	1971
10	Lieutenant Colonel Harish Chandra Pathak	5	Infantry	1971
11	Wing Commander Swaroop Krishna Kaul	5	Indian Air Force	1971
12	Lieutenant Colonel Ved Prakash Ghai	5	Infantry	1971
13	Lieutenant Colonel Surinder Kapur	7	Infantry	1971
14	Lieutenant Colonel Ved Prakash Airy	8	Infantry	1972
15	Major Bhaskar Roy	9	Armoured Corps	1965
16	Major Daljit Singh Narang	9	Armoured Corps	1972
17	Lieutenant Commander Santosh Kumar Gupta	10	Indian Navy	1971
18	Major Vijay Rattan Choudhry	13	Corps of Engineers	1971
19	Major Vijay Kumar Berry	14	Infantry	1971
20	Brigadier Manjit Singh	19	Infantry	1987
21	Second Lieutenant Bhagwan Dutt Dogra	20	Infantry	1962
22	Major Amarjit Singh Bal	22	Armoured Corps	1971
23	Captain Gautam Mubayi	23	Infantry	1965
24	Captain Pradip Kumar Gour	25	Infantry	1971
25	Major Basdev Singh Mankotia	28	Infantry	1971
26	Lieutenant Colonel Inder Bal Singh Bawa	30	Infantry	1971
27	Captain Devinder Singh Ahlawat	31	Infantry	1971
28	Major Vivek Gupta	80	2 Rajputana	1999
29	Captain Anuj Nayyar	90	17 Jat	1999
30	Captain Gurjinder Singh Suri	90	12 Bihar	2001
31	Colonel B. Santosh Babu	102	16 Bihar	2021

[Vir Chakra]

163 NDA alumni have been awarded the Vir Chakra, India's third-highest wartime award. Of these, 96 are from the Army, 13 from the Navy and 54 from the Air Force. Notable recipients include Admirals Laxmi Narayan Ramdas, Vijai Singh Shekhawat, Arun Prakash, Lieutenant General Yogesh Kumar Joshi and Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

Peacetime

, 12 Ashok Chakras, 45 Kirti Chakras, and 152 Shaurya Chakras, have been awarded to NDA officers.

Ashoka Chakra">Ashoka Chakra (military decoration)">Ashoka Chakra

Twelve NDA officers have received the Ashok Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award. Of them, one is from the Air Force and the remainder are from the Army. Eleven officers received the award posthumously. Wing commander Rakesh Sharma of the Air Force is the only living NDA Air Force officer to receive the award.

S.No	Name	Course Number	Unit	Notes
1	Second Lieutenant Pollur Mutthuswamy Raman	10	3 Sikh Li	CI Ops Naga Hill-03 Jun 1956
2	Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma	35	Indian Air Force	Only Indian national to go into space; Hero of the Soviet Union
3	Colonel Neelakantan Jayachandran Nair	38	16 Maratha Light Infantry	1994; Kirti Chakra
4	Major Sudhir Kumar Walia	72	9 Para (SF)	2000; Sena Medal recipient
5	Captain Arjun Singh Jasrotia	73	9 Para (SF)	1996; Sena Medal recipient
6	Major Rajiv Kumar Joon	78	22 Grenadiers	1995; Shaurya Chakra recipient
7	Second Lieutenant Rakesh Singh	79	22 Grenadiers	1993
8	Second Lieutenant Puneet Nath Datt	87	1/11 Gorkha Rifles	1997
9	Major Mohit Sharma	95	1 Para (SF)	2010; Sena Medal recipient
10	Major Dinesh Raghu Raman	95	Rashtriya Rifles	2008; COAS commendation
11	Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan	94	7 Bihar 51 SAG (NSG)	2009, Operation Black Tornado
12	Captain Radhakrishnan Nair Harshan	101	2 Para (SF)	2007

[Kirti Chakra]

Forty five NDA alumni have received the Kirti Chakra, India's second-highest peacetime gallantry award. Notable recipients include Colonel Neelakantan Jayachandran Nair, who is also an Ashok Chakra recipient and Lieutenant colonel Nectar Sanjenbam who is also a Shaurya Chakra recipient.

General Bipin Rawat served as the first Chief of Defence Staff of the Indian Armed Forces from January 2020 until his death in a helicopter crash in December 2021. Prior to taking over as the CDS, he served as the 57th Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee of the Indian Armed Forces as well as 27th Chief of the Army Staff. He was posthumously honoured with the Padma Vibhushan in 2022.

[Padma Bhushan]

Commodore Arogyaswami Paulraj, an Emeritus Professor at Stanford University, is noted for pioneering MIMO wireless technology. This transformative innovation is the cornerstone of today's universal 4G/5G mobile and WiFi networks and has earned him numerous global awards.
Commissioned in 1965, he retired pre-maturely from the Indian Navy in 1991 before emigrating to the US. During his Naval service, he led the development of APSOH, the world's leading shallow-water anti-submarine sonar system, contributing significantly to the country's self-reliance. Paulraj also founded three national laboratories for the Indian government: the Center for AI and Robotics, the Center for Development of Advanced Computing, and the Central Research Labs. He received the Padma Bhushan in 2010 for his contributions to defense technology in India.

[Padma Shri]

Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the Silver medal in men's double trap at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He was awarded the Arjuna Award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and the Padma Shri. He also won 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal in the Commonwealth Games and 1 silver and 1 bronze medal in the Asian Games.
He joined politics and was elected as the Member of Parliament from Jaipur, Rajasthan and served as the Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports the Government of India.