Parachute Regiment (India) - Insignia

Insignia

The regimental badge for the Parachute Regiment is an open parachute, partially behind a circle with the word “Parachute” at the top and a scroll at the bottom with the word “Regiment”; wings are spread out from the circle, and a dagger is superimposed on the parachute and upper portion of the circle; the whole in silver metal. As with much of the world’s parachute forces, the normal headgear is a maroon beret, although there is a maroon turban for Sikh personnel.

The special forces, which form part of the Parachute Regiment, have a distinct insignia called Balidaan, which has a commando dagger point downwards, with upward-extending wings extending from the blade and a scroll superimposed on the blade with “Balidaan” inscribed in Devanagiri; the whole in silver metal on an upright red plastic rectangle. The special forces personnel also wear a maroon curved shoulder title with SPECIAL FORCES embroidered in light blue, succeeding the COMMANDO tab in 2006 with was in use since inception.

There remains a single airborne brevet: an open parachute in white, with light blue wings extended from it, the whole on a grey-green drab background. (Some other variants have existed for ceremonial/mess uniforms, e.g., with gold wired wings on a maroon flanel, the same on a scarlet background for the PBG on their ceremonial tunics. This was formerly worn on the upper right sleeve but since, 1975 appears above the right chest pocket and name tab. There is also a small enameled version (white parachute with blue, yellow, or red wings) worn on the left pocket as Jump Indicator Wings (for 25, 50 or 100 descents, respectively). The small enameled badge has now been replaced by a brass badge with stars at the bottom of the parachute, with one star denoting 25 jumps, two stars 50 and three stars 100.