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| Infantry Officers who rose to the level of Chief of Army Staff of Indian Army | |||
| Kings Commissioned Indian Officers | |||
| S.No. | Name | Regiment | Chief of Army Staff |
| 1. | Field Marshal K. M. Cariappa | Rajput Regiment | 1st Indian Commander-In- Chief and 1st COAS |
| 2. | Gen. P. N. Thapar, passed out from Royal Military College, Sandhurst on 4 February 1926 | Punjab Regiment | 4th Chief of Army Staff |
| Indian Commissioned Officers | |||
| S.No. | Name | Regiment | Chief of Army Staff |
| 3. | Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw – 1st batch of Gentlemen Cadets at the Indian Military Academy in 1932 | 4th Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment | 8th Chief of Army staff. He was also the 1st Indian Army officer to be promoted to the rank of field marshal. |
| 4. | Gen. G. G. Bewoor Bewoor – commissioned as a second lieutenant on 15 July 1937. | 5th Battalion 10th Baluch Regiment. | 9th Chief of Army Staff |
| 5. | Gen. T. N. Raina – he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the British Indian Army on 12th April 1942. He was mentioned in dispatches for his service during the Burma Campaign. | 19th Hyderabad Regiment, now known as the Kumaon Regiment | 10th Chief of Army Staff. |
| 6. | Gen. K. V. Krishna Rao – commissioned as a second lieutenant on 9 August 1942, he served in Burma, North West Frontier and Baluchistan during the Second World War. Then a Major in the British Indian Army he had to start all over again as a Lieutenant on 15 August 1947 | 2nd battalion of Mahar Regiment | He became Chief of Army Staff 1 June 1981. He was also Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, the highest appointment in the Services, during March 1982 – July 1983. |
| 7. | Gen. K. Sundarji – joined the British Indian Army in 1945 during the Second World War. He was the last former British Indian Army officer to command the Indian Army. | Mahar Regiment | Appointed COAS in 1986, Gen Sundarji led Operation Blue Star, to evict Sikh extremists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. He was also involved in Operation Brasstacks, a large-scale war gaming exercise near the Pakistan border, and Op Pawan Indian Peace Keeping Force IPKF Operation to disarm the LTTE.Despite being an infantry officer he was among the most far-sighted Armoured corps commanders in the Indian Army. He pioneered various operational guidelines and made his commanders to push the men and machines to the limits – from snow to sand. A great believer of the doctrine of speed, fire-power and mobility to win future wars, he designed the black uniform for the Armoured Corps and is credited to have created the Mechanized Infantry. |
| 8. | Gen. V. P. Malik – commissioned in the post-independence Indian Army on 7 June 1959 | Sikh Light Infantry | Took charge as the 19th Chief of Army Staff, on 30 September 1997. He was the Army Chief during the Kargil War and was appointed Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee with effect from 01 January 1999. |
| 9. | Gen. N. C. Vij – joined the National Defence Academy (NDA) in 1959 and was commissioned on 11 December 1962. He saw action in the Walong sector in the 1962 Indo-China War within weeks of his commissioning. | Dogra Regiment | 21st Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army, he held the office from 1 Jan 2003 to 31 Jan 2005. |
| 10. | Gen. J. J. Singh – the first Sikh to lead the Indian Army. He joined the 25th course of the National Defence Academy, and was still a cadet when the Sino-Indian War broke out in 1962. | 9 Maratha Light Infantry | The 22nd Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), he served as COAS from 31 January 2005, to 30 September 2007. |
| 11. | Gen. V. K. Singh | 2nd Battalion of the Rajput Regiment (Kali Chindi) | Served as the 24th Chief of the Army Staff from 2010 to 2012. He was the first commando to achieve that position |
| 12. | Gen. Bikram Singh – second Sikh to be COAS | Sikh Light Infantry | Served as the 25th Chief of Army Staff (COAS) of the Indian Army from 1 June 2012 – 31 July 2014 |
| 13. | Gen. D. S. Suhag – third officer from the Gorkha Rifles to become the Chief of the Army, after Field Marshal Manekshaw and Gen Bewoor | 4th battalion of the 5 Gorkha Rifles | 26th COAS of the Indian Army, from 31 July 2014 to 31 December 2016 |
| 14. | Gen. Bipin Rawat – he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Indian Army on 16 December 1978 | 5th battalion of 11 Gorkha Rifles | 27th Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army, he assumed office on 31 December 2016. He is the fourth officer from the Gorkha Regiment to become Chief of Indian Army.He is also the honorary General of Nepalese Army as part of tradition between the Indian and Nepali armies to confer the honorary top rank on each other’s chiefs |
| 15. | Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane – will assume office from 1 January 2020 | 7th battalion of Sikh Light Infantry | 28th Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) designate, currently the 40th Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCOAS) of the Indian Army. Gen Naravane will be the 3rd officer from the Sikh Light Infantry to become COAS of the Indian Army, the others being Gen. V. P. Malik and Gen. Bikram Singh. |
| Armoured Corps Officers who rose to the level of Chief of Army Staff of Indian Army | |||
| S.No. | Name | Regiment | Chief of Army Staff |
| 1. | Gen. Rajendrasinhji | 2nd Lancers | 2nd COAS |
| 2. | Gen. Shrinagesh | 19th Hyderabad Regiment | 3rd COAS |
| 3. | Gen. K. S. Thimayya | 19th Hyderabad Regiment | 4th COAS |
| 4. | Gen. J. N. Chaudhuri | 7th Light Cavalry | 6th COAS |
| 5. | Gen. Arun Vaidya | 9th Deccan Horse | 13th COAS |
| 6. | Gen. V. N. Sharma | 16th Light Cavalry | 15th COAS |
| 7. | Gen. B. C. Joshi | 64th Cavalry | 17th COAS |
| 8. | Gen. S. Roychowdhury | 20th Lancers | 18th COAS |
| Artillery Officers who rose to the level of Chief of Army Staff of Indian Army | |||
| S.No. | Name | Regiment | Chief of Army Staff |
| 1. | Gen. P. P. Kumaramangalam | Artillery | 7th COAS |
| 2. | Gen. O. P. Malhotra | Artillery | 11th COAS |
| 3. | Gen. S. F. Rodrigues | Artillery | 16th COAS |
| 4. | Gen. S. Padmanabhan | Artillery | 20th COAS |
| 5. | Gen. Deepak Kapoor | Artillery | 23rd COAS |
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