The Indian National Defence Academy (NDA) is the joint services academy of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three armed forces (the Army, the Navy and the Air Force) train together before beginning pre-commission training at their respective service academies (Indian Military Academy (IMA), Indian Naval Academy (INA), and Air Force Academy (AFA) for army, navy, and air force cadets respectively). Established in 1954 and located in vicinity of Khadakwasla Dam, near Pune, it is the world's first tri-service academy.

NDA is not the only officer training academy in India. Besides NDA, which is tri-service academy, the Indian Army's IMA, Officers Training Academy (OTA), Army Cadet College (ACC), the Indian Navy's INA, and the Air Force's AFA are the other officer training academies of India. Besides cadets from NDA, these academies accept cadets separately from several streams. Apart from these, the Indian Army has three establishments for technical stream which include College of Military Engineering (CME), Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE), and Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering (MCEME). Although cadets are imparted technical training at these three academies, they are commissioned through OTA, Gaya. Excluding all these establishments, which are meant for combat arms, the Indian Army has other commissioning academies for support services such as the Medical Corps, and the Judge Advocate General's Department for example.

Similarly, the Aeronautical Engineers (Electronics) and Aeronautical Engineers (Mechanical) are trained at the Air Force Technical College at Jalahalli, Bengaluru; the Meteorological branch officer cadets get their training at Air Force Administrative College, Coimbatore.

NDA alumni have led and participated in every major conflict in which the Indian Armed Forces have been called into action since the academy was founded. Alumni include three Param Vir Chakra recipients and twelve Ashoka Chakra recipients. The NDA has produced 36 service chiefs of staff, including the incumbent chiefs of staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Chiefs of staff

As of September 2023, the academy has produced fourteen Chiefs of the Army Staff (COAS), twelve Chiefs of the Naval Staff (CNS) and ten Chiefs of the Air Staff (CAS). All incumbent service chiefs (Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Pande, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar and Chief of the Air Staff ACM Vivek Ram Chaudhari) are NDA alumni.

Chief of the Army Staff

No.	Name	Awards	Course number	Notes
1	Sunith Francis Rodrigues	PVSM, VSM	1	26th Governor of Punjab
2	Bipin Chandra Joshi	PVSM, AVSM, ADC	5
3	Shankar Roy Chowdhury	PVSM, ADC	10	Former Rajya Sabha member
4	Ved Prakash Malik	PVSM, AVSM	14
5	Sundararajan Padmanabhan	PVSM, AVSM, VSM	15
6	Nirmal Chander Vij	PVSM, UYSM, AVSM	21	Former National Disaster Management Authority vice-chair; Vivekananda International Foundation director
7	Joginder Jaswant Singh	PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC	25	14th Governor of Arunachal Pradesh
8	Deepak Kapoor	PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC	30
9	Vijay Kumar Singh	PVSM, AVSM, YSM, ADC	36	Union Minister of State for External Affairs; Union Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs; Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation; Former Minister for Development of North Eastern Region; Member of Indian Parliament for Ghaziabad
10	Bikram Singh	PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC, LoM	40
11	Dalbir Singh	PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC, LoM	44
12	Bipin Rawat	PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM, ADC	53	former CDS
13	Manoj Mukund Naravane	PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC	56	former COAS
14	Manoj Pande	PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC	61	Incumbent

Chief of the Naval Staff

No.	Name	Awards	Course number	Notes
1	Laxmi Narayan Ramdas	PVSM, AVSM, VrC, VSM, ADC	1	2004 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding
2	Vijai Singh Shekhawat	PVSM, AVSM, VrC, ADC	7	Former Vice Chairman of Outward Bound India; Vivekananda International Foundation advisory board member
3	Vishnu Bhagwat	PVSM, AVSM, ADC	14
4	Sushil Kumar	PVSM, AVSM, UYSM, YSM, NM, VSM, ADC	16
5	Madhvendra Singh	PVSM, AVSM, ADC	20
6	Arun Prakash	PVSM, AVSM, VrC, VSM, ADC	26
7	Sureesh Mehta	PVSM, AVSM, ADC	29	Former High Commissioner to New Zealand
8	Nirmal Kumar Verma	PVSM, AVSM	35	24th High Commissioner to Canada
9	Robin Kumar Dhowan	PVSM, AVSM, YSM, ADC	45
10	Sunil Lanba	PVSM, AVSM, ADC	51
11	Karambir Singh	PVSM, AVSM, ADC	56	former CNS
12	Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar	PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC	61	Incumbent

Chief of the Air Staff

No.	Name	Awards	Course number	Notes
1	Nirmal Chandra Suri	PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC	1
2	Swaroop Krishna Kaul	PVSM, MVC, ADC	5	Maha Vir Chakra recipient
3	Satish Kumar Sareen	PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC	12
4	Anil Yashwant Tipnis	PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC	15
5	Pradeep Vasant Naik	PVSM, VSM, ADC	33
6	Norman Anil Kumar Browne	PVSM, VM, ADC	39	Ambassador to Norway
7	Arup Raha	PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC	44
8	Birender Singh Dhanoa	PVSM, AVSM, YSM, VM, ADC	52
9	Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria	PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC	56	Former CAS
10	Vivek Ram Chaudhari	PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC	61	Incumbent

Wartime award recipients

As of September 2023, 3 Param Vir Chakras, 32 Maha Vir Chakras and 163 Vir Chakras have been awarded to NDA officers.

Param Vir Chakra

Three officers from NDA have posthumously received the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest wartime gallantry award. All three were from the Army.

No.	Name	Course number	Unit	Year
1	Gurbachan Singh Salaria	9	3/1 Gorkha Rifles	1961
2	Arun Khetarpal	38	17 Poona Horse	1971
3	Manoj Kumar Pandey	90	1/11 Gorkha Rifles	1999

Maha Vir Chakra

32 NDA officers have received the Maha Vir Chakra, India's second-highest wartime gallantry award: two from the Air Force, one from the Navy and the remainder from the Army. Ten received the award posthumously. Air Force squadron leader Padmanabha Gautam is the only NDA officer to receive the award twice, in 1965 and 1971 (posthumously).

No.	Name	Course number	Unit	Year
1	Raj Mohan Vohra	1	Armoured Corps	1971
2	Hanut Singh	1	Armoured Corps	1971
3	Kulwant Singh Pannu	1	Infantry	1971
4	Narinder Singh Sandhu	2	Infantry	1971
5	Padmanabha Gautam	3	Indian Air Force	1965, 1971
6	Sushil Kumar Mathur	3	Artillery	1965
7	Sukhjit Singh	4	Armoured Corps	1971
8	Shamsher Singh	5	Infantry	1971
9	Raj Kumar Singh	5	Infantry	1971
10	H. C. Pathak	5	Infantry	1971
11	Swaroop Krishna Kaul	5	Indian Air Force	1971
12	Ved Prakash Ghai	5	Infantry	1971
13	Surinder Kapoor	7	Infantry	1971
14	Ved Prakash Airy	8	Infantry	1972
15	Bhaskar Roy	9	Armoured Corps	1965
16	Daljit Singh Narang	9	Armoured Corps	1972
17	Santosh Kumar Gupta	10	Indian Navy	1971
18	Vijay Rattan Choudhry	13	Corps of Engineers	1971
19	Vijay Kumar Berry	14	Infantry	1971
20	Manjit Singh	19	Infantry	1987
21	Bhagwan Dutt Dogra	20	Infantry	1962
22	Amarjit Singh Bal	22	Armoured Corps	1971
23	Gautam Mubayi	23	Infantry	1965
24	Pradip Kumar Gour	25	Infantry	1971
25	Basdev Singh Mankotia	28	Infantry	1971
26	S. K. Gupta	30	Infantry	1971
27	Inder Bal Singh Bawa	30	Infantry	1971
28	Devinder Singh Ahlawat	31	Infantry	1971
29	Vivek Gupta	80	2 Rajputana	1999
30	Anuj Nayyar	90	17 Jat	1999
31	Gurjinder Singh Suri	90	12 Bihar	2001
32	Bikkumalla Santosh Babu	105	16 Bihar	2021

Vir Chakra

163 NDA alumni have been awarded the Vir Chakra, India's third-highest wartime award. Of these, 96 are from the Army, 13 from the Navy and 54 from the Air Force. Notable recipients include Admiral Laxmi Narayan Ramdas, Admiral Vijai Singh Shekhawat, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman and Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat. & Lt Gen Yogesh Kumar Joshi.

Peacetime award recipients

As of September 2023, 12 Ashok Chakras, 45 Kirti Chakras, and 152 Shaurya Chakras, have been awarded to NDA officers.

Ashoka Chakra

Twelve NDA officers have received the Ashok Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award. Of them, one is from the Air Force and the remainder are from the Army. Eleven officers received the award posthumously. Wing commander Rakesh Sharma of the Air Force is the only living NDA Air Force officer to receive the award.

No.	Name	Course number	Unit	Notes
1	Pollur Mutthuswamy Raman	10	3 Sikh Li	CI Ops Naga Hill-03 Jun 1956
2	Rakesh Sharma	35	Indian Air Force	Only Indian national to go into space; Hero of the Soviet Union
3	Neelakantan Jayachandran Nair	38	16 Maratha Light Infantry	1994; Kirti Chakra (1983)
4	Sudhir Kumar Walia	72	9 Para (SF)	2000; Sena Medal recipient
5	Arjun Singh Jasrotia	73	9 Para (SF)	1996; Sena Medal recipient
6	Rajiv Kumar Joon	78	22 Grenadiers	1995; Shaurya Chakra recipient
7	Rakesh Singh	79	22 Grenadiers	1993
8	Puneet Nath Datt	87	1/11 Gorkha Rifles	1997
9	Mohit Sharma	95	1 Para (SF)	2010; Sena Medal recipient
10	Dinesh Raghu Raman	95	Rashtriya Rifles	2008; COAS commendation
11	Sandeep Unnikrishnan	94	7 Bihar 51 SAG (NSG)	2009, Operation Black Tornado
12	Radhakrishnan Nair Harshan	101	2 Para (SF)	2007

Kirti Chakra

Forty five NDA alumni have received the Kirti Chakra, India's second-highest peacetime gallantry award. Notable recipients include Colonel Neelakantan Jayachandran Nair, who is also an Ashok Chakra recipient Lieutenant colonel Nectar Sanjenbam who is also a Shaurya Chakra recipient.[1] Archived 12 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine

Shaurya Chakra

A total of 152 NDA alumni have received the Shaurya Chakra, India's third-highest peacetime gallantry award. Notable recipients include Major Rajiv Kumar Joon, who is also an Ashok Chakra recipient.

Others

No.	Name	Military awards	Course number	Notes
1	Arogyaswami Paulraj	AVSM, VSM	25	Professor Emeritus, Stanford University, USA; 2010 Padma Bhushan recipient; 2011 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal; 2014 Marconi Prize; 2018 United States Patent and Trademark Office, National Inventors Hall of Fame; 2023 IET Faraday Medal; Project lead for APSOH sonar developed for the Indian Navy 1977-83, APSOH was the most advanced sonar system in the world in its class. Later in the US, developed MIMO wireless, the core technology behind 4G/5G mobile and WiFi networks. MIMO triggered massive R&D investments worldwide and is now used universally
2	Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore	AVSM	77	Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting; Member of Parliament from Jaipur, Rajasthan; Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award recipient; Padma Shri recipient; Arjuna Award recipient; Silver medal in men's double trap at the 2004 Summer Olympics; 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal in the Commonwealth Games; 1 silver and 1 bronze medal in the Asian Games
3	Ian Cardozo	AVSM, SM	12	First NDA cadet to receive both gold and silver medals; First war-disabled officer of the Indian Army to command a battalion and a brigade