Our Bureau
New Delhi
The Olympic Gold Medalist, Neeraj Chopra has been conferred honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Territorial Army. The news was issued by the Ministry of Defence’s Department of Military Affairs on May 13th 2025. Chopra was a Subedar Major in the Indian Army formerly and has now been conferred the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Major General GS Choudhry, Joint Secretary, Department of Military Affairs gave a statement stating, “No 3 (E) dated 9th May 2025 in exercise of the powers conferred by Para -31 of the Territorial Army Regulations, 1948, the president is pleased to confer on Ex- Sub Maj Neeraj Chopra, PVSM, Padma Shri, VSM, Village & Post Office Khandra, Panipat, Haryana with effect from 16 April, 2025.”
The Indian track and field star in 2016, was enrolled in the Indian Army as a Junior Commissioned Officer in Naib Subedar rank. In 2018, Chopra was awarded the Arjuna award and in 2021 he received the Vishisht Seva Medal for his meritorious service. In 2021, he was also promoted to the Subedar rank. In 2022, he received the Param Vishisht Seva Medal for his meritorious service, and later in 2024, he was promoted to the rank of Subedar Major.
Earlier, the former captains of the Indian Cricket Team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kapil Dev were also conferred honorary ranks in the Indian Territorial Army. Not only them, arguably the greatest batsman of all time, Sachin Tendulkar in 2010 was also honoured with the rank of Group Captain in the Indian Air Force (IAF). The 20008 Olympic Gold Medalist, Abhinav Bindra in 2011 was also conferred the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Chopra will be competing in the 71st ORLEN Janusz Kusociński Memorial event in Chorzów, Poland, on May 23. He was earlier set to compete and host the Neeraj Chopra classics that were going to be held in Bangalore but were postponed due to ongoing cross-border conflicts between India and Pakistan.
