Former army chief General VK Singh. VK Singh and the army chief-designate Dalbir Singh Suhag belong to Haryana.

States No. of cadets Uttar Pradesh 121 Haryana 62 Uttarakhand 57 Rajasthan 38 Delhi 37 Punjab 33 Maharashtra 32 Madhya Pradesh 30 Himachal Pradesh 29 Kerala 27 West Bengal 23 Andhra Pradesh 20 Karnataka 20 J&K 16 Odisha 10 Jharkhand 7 Manipur 6 Chandigarh 5 Assam 2 Gujarat 1 Tripura 1 Sikkim 1

CHANDIGARH: Has Haryana replaced Punjab as the sword arm of the nation? The latest figures of the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun, show that the Jat-land has taken the lead in producing officers, leaving Punjab, once the nursery of the armed forced, far behind.Of the total 636 gentlemen cadets (GC) who passed out of IMA on Saturday, 62 are from Haryana, second only to Uttar Pradesh.Despite having just 2.09% of the country’s population, Haryana has produced almost 10% officers in the current batch. Even the gold and silver medals have gone to two Haryanvis — Vishal Dahiya and Vikash Kalkal.The state’s growing clout in the Army is reflected in the fact that former army chief VK Singh and the army chief-designate Dalbir Singh Suhag, both belong to Haryana.Punjab has finished a lowly sixth in the list of states sending officers to the Army this time with just 33 cadets.In the December 2013 passing out parade, 70 of 617 cadets who passed out from IMA were from Haryana. Uttar Pradesh, which is eight times bigger than Haryana with 16.49% population of the country, has maintained first position with 121 cadets.Former deputy commandant of NDA, Major General (retired) BS Grewal says Haryanavis Chief of Nepal Army, general Gaurav Shumsher Rana took the salute from the officers during their passing out parade at Dehradun, following which the cadets were commissioned in different corps of the army on the rank of lieutenant.Vishnu Peethambaran, who hails from Ernakulam district, has won the coveted Sword of Honour presented to the best all-round cadet at Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun.Soldiers from the states who passed out on Saturday: