Indian Navy-Chief of Personnel

       Vice Admiral Anurag Gopalan Thapliyal (01773-B) was born on 17 Jan 1955 and did his schooling at Dehradun, Varanasi and Lucknow. He is an alumnus of Naval Academy and was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 01 Jul 1977.

       Vice Admiral AG Thapliyal, a specialist in Navigation & Aircraft Direction (ND) has held various operational and staff appointments, both, afloat and ashore. Besides a host of operational tenures afloat, he has commanded the ASW patrol vessel Ajay, missile corvette Khukri, stealth frigate Tabar and the indigenous destroyer Mysore. He also had the privilege of Commissioning INS Cheetah (as Navigating Officer) in Poland and INS Ajay and Tabar as Commanding Officer, both, in Russia. The Flag Officer has also been the Fleet Operations Officer, Eastern Fleet at Visakhapatnam.

       He has also held an equal number of important and challenging shore appointments which include Chief Instructor – ND School, Deputy Director Naval Operations and Joint Director Naval Plans at Integrated Headquarters, MoD (Navy), New Delhi and Director – Maritime Warfare Centre (Visakhapatnam).

       On promotion to the rank of Rear Admiral, he took over as Chief of Staff, Headquarters, Eastern Naval Command, and later served as ACNS (Information Warfare & Operations) at IHQ MoD (Navy) and Fleet Commander, Eastern Fleet. He took over as Commandant, Indian Naval Academy (INA), Ezhimala in Sep 09 and was promoted to Vice Admiral’s rank on 01 Oct 09. VAdm Thapliyal takes over his current assignment as COP after 29 months as Commandant INA.

      Vice Admiral Anurag Thapliyal is an alumnus of the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, USA and DSSC, Wellington and possesses two Masters Degrees, in Physics and Defence Studies. The Flag Officer is a recipient of Ati Vishist Seva Medal and was felicitated by Lucknow University in Nov 2010.

       The Flag Officer is married to Mrs Rachna Thapliyal and has two sons, Aditya, a Lieutenant in the Indian Navy, and Ashwin who is working as an Engineer with a private firm.

       Vice Admiral Thapliyal plays Golf, Badminton and enjoys swimming and amateur photography along with reading.