Lt Gen Hooda has had a distinguished career spanning 40 years in the Indian Army. He has attended the prestigious Command and Staff College at Canada and was selected as the first Chief Logistics Officer for the newly raised United Nations Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea. He played a key... Read more
Lt Gen Hooda has had a distinguished career spanning 40 years in the Indian Army. He has attended the prestigious Command and Staff College at Canada and was selected as the first Chief Logistics Officer for the newly raised United Nations Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea. He played a key role in setting up the mission throughout Eritrea in terms of camps, engineering and communications support, and food and health services.
During the massive earthquake of Jammu and Kashmir in 2005, he led the military’s rescue and relief efforts in the Uri sector. As a major general in Manipur, he responsible for counterinsurgency operations in Manipur and South Assam. Here he interacted with the highest levels of political leadership to frame a security strategy for the Northeast.
From 2012 to 2016, he was stationed in Jammu and Kashmir, first as a Corps Commander and then as the Army Commander of Northern Command. In this assignment, he led the Army’s counter terrorism operations in Kashmir and handled numerous strategic challenges along the borders both with Pakistan and China. He planned and conducted the surgical strikes against Pakistan in September 2016. He also supervised and directed the relief efforts during the devastating floods of 2014 in Jammu and Kashmir. He retired in November 2016 after 40 years of service in the Army.
In recognition for exemplary military service, have been awarded the VishishtSeva Medal twice, the AtiVishishtSeva Medal, the UttamYudhSevaMedal and the Param VishishtSeva Medal.
Lt Gen Hooda is a co-founder of the Council for Strategic and Defense Research, a New Delhi based think-tank. He is a Senior Fellow at the Delhi Policy Group and is on the Advisory Board of Cyber Peace Foundation, an NGO dealing cyber protection and training, and on the Advisory Board of Cyber Security Research Centre at Punjab Engineering College.
He has delivered numerous talks to corporate houses, academic institutions, think-tanks, and security establishments on leadership, motivation, managing crises, disaster management, and national security. He has been a regular contributor to newspapers, on-line media portals and professional journals on national and international affairs.