The Indian Army will hold a major parade in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh’s capital, today to commemorate the 76th Army Day. For the second year in a row, the Army Day parade will be held outside of Delhi. Last year, the procession was held at Bengaluru’s MED & Centre’s procession Ground.
Chief guests at the parade field in Lucknow will include Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Governor Anandi Ben Patel.
Army Day is commemorated every year on January 15 to commemorate the date when General (Later Field Marshal) KM Cariappa received command of the Indian Army from General Sir Francis Roy Bucher in 1949, becoming the first-ever Indian to lead the Army in its long, rich history. General Sir Francis Roy Bucher was the last British-serving chief of the Indian Army.
Field Marshal KM Cariappa, often known as ‘Kipper’, obtained his King’s Commission in 1919 and was among the first Indian cadets to attend the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, United Kingdom. Field Marshal Cariappa was the first Indian to attend the Staff College in Quetta and command a battalion. In 1942, he formed the 7th Rajput Machine Gun Batallion, subsequently renamed 17 Rajput. In 1986, KM Cariappa was appointed Field Marshal. He passed away at the age of 94 in 1993.
The Army Day parade, held annually since 1949, will be held under the Central Command of the Indian Army, headquartered in Lucknow.
The parade will feature six marching contingents from different regiments, a military band consisting of five regimental brass bands and three pipe bands. The parade will be attended by the 50th (Independent) Parachute Brigade, Sikh Light Infantry, Jat Regiment, Garhwal Rifles, Bengal Engineer Group, and the Army Air Defence contingent.
The parade will be reviewed by Army Chief General Manoj Pande, who will present gallantry awards. The parade will also feature daring motorcycle displays by the Army Service Corps (ASC) Tornadoes, skydiving displays by Paratroopers, daredevil jumps, and a fly past by helicopters of the Army Aviation Corps.
This year’s Army Day parade will be special because of the use of Artificial Intelligence to select the ‘Best Marching Contingent’.
“Artificial Intelligence is being used for the first time to identify the best marching contingent,” Major General Salil Seth said.
“All marching contingents do drills but there is a pattern of doing it — raising your hands and legs to a certain level and doing your movement with the weapon within a certain timeframe. We will capture the individual movement with a camera and then the computer software using the AI will give marks for every movement. This will also be supervised by humans. We have done two to three practices,” the officer added.
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