India, June 28 -- How Upendra Dwivedi's speed, self-reliance, and Operation Sindoor defined a tenure.

When General Upendra Dwivedi walks out of South Block for the last time on June 30, he will leave behind an institution that operates with a sharper, faster instinct, built under his watch to match the speed of the wars it may have to fight.

It is unusual for a Chief of Army Staff to acquire a nickname that sticks. General Dwivedi, however, got one without trying. It was the Army's own drills and demonstrations-swarms flying past at Republic Day, new units built around them, doctrine rewritten to put them at the centre-that earned him the nickname soldiers and strategists alike began using-"The Drone General".

The instinct to bet so he...