Lt Gen Deepak Kapoor, a veteran of the 1971 war with Pakistan who commanded the army's largest and most sensitive northern command for two years, was on Thursday named as the next Chief of Army Staff.

Kapoor, an artillery officer who has the distinction of obtaining three masters degrees in military science, business administration and political science, will succeed Gen J J Singh when he retires on September 30, an official announcement said.

Kapoor also commanded the RAM, a re-organised infantry cum armour division, during Operation Parakram, the tense standoff with Pakistan in 2001-02.

Besides having headed key divisions deployed on the border with Pakistan, Kapoor has commanded troops engaged in anti-insurgency operations.

He commanded a brigade on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir [Images] in 1998, for which he was awarded the Sena Medal for devotion to duty.

Kapoor will be the senior-most general in the army when Gen J J Singh retires at the end of September.

Kapoor was also chief of staff of the Tezpur-based 4 Corps, which is engaged in anti-insurgency operations in Assam. On being promoted to the rank of corps commander, he took over the 33 Corps deployed on the Sino-Indian border.

Later, he was shifted as army commander to the Udhampur-based Northern Command, which oversees operations against militants in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the deployment of troops on the LoC and the international border with Pakistan and China.

The Northern Command currently has the largest number of troops of all the formations in the army.

A recipient of the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Kapoor has also served as chief of the army's Training Command and as chief operations officer with the UN peacekeeping mission in Somalia during 1994-95.   

Kapoor, who was born in 1948, was commissioned into the artillery regiment on June 11, 1967. He is married to Kirti Kapoor and has a son and a daughter.