Being a leader comes natural for tall Avinash Chhetri, the recipient of prestigious Sword of Honour for being best in all spheres of training among the passing-out contingent of Indian Military Academy (IMA) .

In a rare hour, Chhetri was awarded gold medal for standing first in overall merit in the passing-out course and was given responsibility to command the Passing-out Parade (POP) on Saturday. A resident of Tejpur in Assam, Chhetri joined prestigious Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun after doing his initial studies in Kendriya Vidhyalaya (KV). After RIMC, he joined National Defence Academy (NDA). Incidentally he also commanded the passing-out parade at NDA. Son of an SSB officer, Purna Bahadur Chhetri, Avinash is a keen boxer and footballer player.

Vikas Sangwan, the recipient of silver medal for standing third in order of merit is also first in the family to join army. His father Vijay Kumar is a manager in textile industry. A resident of Bhiwani in Haryana, a beaming Vikas said that he shun carrier in engineering and joined army as profession of arms is best and noblest among all.

 Manjubala Joshi, a government teacher and mother of Rohit Joshi, the proud recipient of bronze medal prodded her son to join army like his father Colonel B D Joshi.  A resident of Ancholi of Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand Rohit accepted role of his mother in making pursuing career in army. Manjubala said that one of her son is an engineer and she wanted that her second son too should join army, a desire Rohit fulfilled.

A resident of Defence Colony, Dehradun Akshay Singh Bisht was awarded with silver medal for being first in order of merit in Technical Graduate Course. An alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology (BITS), Pilani, Akshay spurned the offers of many renowned companies and instead joined the army. Son of Colonel C S Bisht (Rtd) and Anita Bisht a teacher, Akshay followed the footsteps of his elder brother Anshuman who passed out from the academy in June 2015. Incidentally Anshuman was also awarded silver medal in his course.