Madhvendra Singh

Admiral Madhvendra Singh was Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy between 29 December 2001 and his retirement from service on 31 July 2004. He had by that date completed over 41 years of service. He belongs to Kachwaha Rajput community. He was also the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee from 2002 to 2004

Career
Madhvendra Singh is a son of Major General K. Bhagwati Singh and was educated at St. Xavier's School, Jaipur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. His military career began in July 1958 when he joined the National Defence Academy, from which he moved to the Navy in January 1963.

He won various awards early in his naval career and chose to specialise in Gunnery, for which purpose he subsequently attended courses at the National Defence College in New Delhi, as well as abroad at institutions such as the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham, United Kingdom, the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, Tamil Nadu and the Naval War College at Newport, USA.

Aside from his numerous staff appointments, Singh commanded INS Viraat, INS Ranvir and INS Talwar, which are an aircraft carrier, a guided missile destroyer and a guided-missile frigate, respectively. He also commanded the Naval Academy at Kochi.

Active service operations in which Singh was involved include the 1961 actions in Goa and in both the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistani wars. His later operations included the 1987 Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka and acting as commander of the Western Maritime Theatre during the Kargil War of 1999.

Singh has been awarded both the Param Vishist Seva Medal and the Ati Vishist Seva Medal for his service.

Family
He is married to Kaumudi Kumari and has a daughter and a son.