Sunith Francis Rodrigues

General Sunith Francis Rodrigues, PVSM, VSM, formerly Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army. Born on 19 September 1933 in Bombay. Over the years as Governor, in Punjab, he has generally received a positive response by the Punjabi press (India) and the Punjabi people have accepted him as one their own due to his strong campaigning of Punjabi interests in India.

Education
He was educated at St. Xaviers High School, Bombay. His religion is Christianity.

Military service
He joined the joint Services Wing of the Indian Military Academy in 1949 and was commissioned in December 1952 into Regiment of Artillery.

He attended the Defence Services Staff College and took overas GSOI operations in a corps Hq in 1971.

In 1972, after the war with Pakistan, he was awarded the VSM for distinguished service. He later served as a GSOI operations of a division from 1973 to 1975.

He commanded a mountain brigade in a high altitude sector from 1975 to 1977 then attended the 1978 course at Royal College of Defence Studies in the UK. He was Chief Instructor at Defence Services Staff College from 1979 to November 1981, then took over the command of a division in a high altitude area. In 1982, he was awarded the Masters Degree in Defence Studies, was the Chief of Staff of a Corps from 1983 to September 1985 then took over as Director General Military Training.

He was GOC of A corps in the Northern Sector in 1986. He was Vice Chief of Army Staff from November 1987 to April 1989 and then GOC-in-C of Central Command from April 1989 to October 1989 then tool over Western Command from 1 November 1989 to 30 June 1990 then was the Chief of Army Staff from 1990 to 1993. He retired on 30 June 1993 after putting in nearly 41 years of dedicated service.

General Rodrigues was known among his compatriots as a thinker and a strategist.

Public service
After his retirement he was Director of the International Centre, Goa for nearly six years. He served two terms on the National Security Advisory Board. Since his retirement, he has been engaged in social and literary pursuits and has also been delivering talks on strategic issues. He takes a keen interest in education and empowering children to achieve their potential. He was on the Executive Council of Goa University for 7 years and on the Managing Committee of the Goa Chamber of Commerce. He is also a long standing Member of the Goa Planning Board and on the Board of Governors of the Goa Institute of Management.

Governor of Punjab
He was appointed Governor of Punjab and Administrator, Union Territory, Chandigarh on 8 November 2004 and he was sworn into the office on 16 November 2004.

He was succeeded by Shivraj Patil on 22 January 2010.