The Indian Army will celebrate the 76th Army Day with a grand parade in Uttar Pradesh’s capital city, Lucknow, today. The Army Day parade has been moved out of Delhi for the second consecutive year. Last year, the parade took place at Bengaluru’s MED & Centre’s Parade Ground. 

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Governor Anandi Ben Patel will be in attendance as chief guests at the parade ground in Lucknow. 

Why Army Day Is Celebrated?

Army Day is celebrated every year on January 15 to commemorate the occasion when General (Later Field Marshal) KM Cariappa took charge of the Indian Army from General Sir Francis Roy Bucher in 1949 and became the first-ever Indian to command 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, known as ‘Kipper’, received his King’s Commission in 1919 and was part of the first group of Indian cadets at the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, UK. Field Marshal Cariappa was the first Indian to attend the Staff College in Quetta and the first Indian to command a Batallion. In 1942, he raised the 7th Rajput Machine Gun Batallion, later known as 17 Rajput. In 1986, KM Cariappa was conferred with the rank of Field Marshal. He died at the age of 94 in 1993. 

From 1949 till 2022, the Army Day parade was organised at the Cariappa Parade Ground in the Delhi Cantonment. The Chief of Army Staff reviews the marching contingents who also take part in the Republic Day Parade every year.

This year, the parade will be held under the Command of Army’s ‘Central Command, which is headquartered in Lucknow. Central Command is one of the seven operational commands of the Indian Army. Last year, the Southern Command was responsible for the parade in Bengaluru. 

Grand Spectacle In Lucknow

The grand spectacle will take place at the parade ground of the 11 Gorkha Rifles Regimental Centre in Lucknow under the command of Major General Salil Seth. Six marching contingents from the army’s different regiments, a military band comprising five regimental brass bands and three pipe bands will participate.

50th (Independent) Parachute Brigade, Sikh Light Infantry, Jat Regiment, Garhwal Rifles, Bengal Engineer Group and the Army Air Defence contingent march down the parade ground. 

The five regimental brass/military bands are – Punjab Regiment Centre, Grenadier Regimental Centre, Bihar Regiment Centre, Sikh Light Regiment Centre, Kumaon Regimental Centre and SIKH Regimental Centre.

The five regimental pipe bands are the SIKH Regiment Centre, SIKH LI Regiment Centre, JAT Regiment Centre, KUMAON Regimental Centre and 1 Signal Training Centre.

Army chief General Manoj Pande will review the parade and present gallantry awards, which will be followed by a daring motorcycle display by the Army Service Corps (ASC) Tornadoes, a skydiving display by the Paratroopers, daredevil jumps, and a fly past by of helicopters of the Army Aviation Corps.

Use Of AI

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.

A thick blanket of fog has engulfed Delhi and parts of north India, posing challenges for air and rail traffic linking the national capital with the rest of the country. Delhi airport has issued a dense fog alert as reduced visibility affects hundreds of flights, urging fliers to stay updated about the flight details.

As many as 110 flights have been delayed and 79 flights cancelled at the Delhi airport today, showed flight tracker website flightradar24 this morning, with an average delay of 50 minutes.

Major airlines like IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara said bad weather conditions in Delhi and Kolkata may impact flights.

Schools are set to open in the city today after a two-week winter break with physical classes resuming with restricted timings in view of the severe cold conditions.

A similar fog condition disrupted flight and train services in Delhi yesterday with zero visibility reported in the airport area. The minimum temperature was recorded at 7 degrees.

The season’s first cold wave day was on Friday with the temperature dipping to 3.9 degrees Celsius. Saturday’s was coldest night at 3 degre

A passenger aboard an IndiGo flight physically assaulted the aircraft’s pilot while he was making an announcement regarding delays. A video of the assault is now viral on social media.

The shocking episode unfolded as a man in a yellow hoodie abruptly ran up from the last row and hit the new pilot, who had replaced the previous crew due to Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms after several hours of delay.

A passenger punched an Indigo capt in the aircraft as he was making delay announcement. The guy ran up from the last row and punched the new Capt who replaced the previous crew who crossed FDTL. Unbelievable ! @DGCAIndia @MoCA_GoI pic.twitter.com/SkdlpWbaDd

— Capt_Ck (@Capt_Ck) January 14, 2024

FDTL, or Flight Duty Time Limitations, are regulations crucial for ensuring the well-being of pilots and flight attendants by mandating adequate rest periods and mitigating fatigue-related safety concerns. The responsibility for establishing FDTL falls under the jurisdiction of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

It is still unverified on which flight this incident took place.

“What does the pilot or cabin crew have to do with the delay? They were just doing their job. Arrest this man, and put him on the no-fly list. Publish his picture so people are aware of his bad temper in public,” wrote one user on X, reacting to the video.

“This person should be booked for assault as well as put on a No Fly List. While @IndiGo6E is in the news for all the wrong reasons and must be taken to task for its shortcomings, but this is totally unacceptable passenger behaviour,” wrote another.

The incident comes against the backdrop of significant disruptions at the Delhi airport, where as many as 110 flights experienced delays and 79 flights were cancelled today, according to the flight tracker website flightradar24. The average delay reached 50 minutes, adding to the growing frustration of passengers already grappling with extensive flight disruptions.

Yesterday, several flights arriving at and departing from the Delhi airport faced severe delays, some exceeding seven or eight hours, primarily due to adverse weather conditions, including dense fog, in North India. Major airlines such as IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Vistara have warned that ongoing bad weather conditions in Delhi and Kolkata could further impact flight schedules.