National Defence Academy (India)

National Defence Academy

राष्ट्रीय रक्षा अकादमी
Motto	सेवा परमो धर्म: (sēvā paramō dharma)
Motto in English	Service Before Self
Type	Military Academy
Established	7 December 1954
Commandant	Air Marshal Jasjit Singh Kler, VM
Location	Pune, Maharashtra, India
Campus	7,015 acres (28.39 km2)
Colors	Maroon
Affiliations	Jawaharlal Nehru University
Website	nda.nic.in

The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the Joint Services academy of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three services, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force train together before they go on to pre-commissioning training in their respective service academies. The NDA is located at Khadakwasla near Pune, Maharashtra. It is the first tri-service academy in the world.

NDA alumni have led and fought in every major conflict in which the Indian Armed Forces has been called to action since the academy was established. The alumni include 3 Param Vir Chakra recipients and 9 Ashoka Chakra recipients. National Defence Academy has produced 27 service Chiefs Of Staff till date. Current Chiefs Of Staff of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force are all NDA alumni.

In 1941, Lord Linlithgow, then Governor-General of India received a gift of £100,000 from a grateful Sudanese Government towards building a war memorial in recognition of the sacrifices of Indian troops in the liberation of Sudan in the East African Campaign during World War II. At the end of the war, Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck, then Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, drawing on experiences of the army during the war, led a committee to study various military academies around the world and submitted a report to the Government of India in Dec. 1946. The committee recommended the establishment of a Joint Services Military Academy, with training modelled on the United States Military Academy at West Point.