Services Preparatory Institute - India

Services Preparatory Institute (SPI), a Government of Maharashtra enterprise, located at AURANGABAD has been grooming youth into capable leaders. The cadets proudly call themselves a SPI (pronounced as "spy") & the eternal bond that binds them is called SPIrit.It was started with a singular aim of encouraging the youth of the state to join the armed forces of India. Today, after 42 glorious years, 545 out of 1834 cadets have joined various defence academies. Those who are not in the services, have made our institute proud ...leading by example in every field that they have been into, be it civil services, medicine, arts, wild life studies, education, sports, corporate, IT, industry or business or entrepreneurship.The First Batch is called the PIONEERS. With Cadet Sumant Uttamrao Dashrath joining the academy in the very first attempt, the institute struck gold at very beginning. And since then there has been no looking back.Today, the highest rank attained by SPI so far is brigadier. (Again Brig Simant Uttamrao Dashrath led from the front). There are 8 brigadiers, 2 commodores, and an air commodore.Two SPIs have been awarded Kirti Chakra (Posthumous)- Lt Col Manish Kadam & Maj Manish Pitambare. SPI premises have a living memorial for these two inSPIring heroes, in form of Manish Hall. A few others who made supreme sacrifice for the Nation are Flt Lt Tanaji Paygude, Sqn Ldr Sachin A Kadam, Sqn Ldr Ninad Mandavgane, Sqn Ldr Charles Ganta.Apart both Manishs, many SPIs have been awarded with gallantry awards. Col Kamalesh Shende, Lt Col Mukund Sarsar and Captain MM Mokashi have been awarded Shaurya Chakra. Col Hitendra Marathe has twice been recipient of Sena Medal.As mentiined earlier, the list of SPIs in civil dress and making us proud are Dr Suhas Hardas, Kapil Saratkar, Vikramjit Singh Karkoti, Rajesh Ingale, Pramod Gaikwad, Shrikrishna Ganbavle, Shreyas Desai, Snehalkumar Kadam, The list is endless.In short its good to be a SPI.