As a young Lieutenant Lt Col Ajit V Bhandarkar SC on 31st May 1982 he joined the Mountain Warfare Course (42) at the High Altitude Warfare School, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir and then completed his Young Officers Course (39) and the Commando Course at the Infantry school belgaum on 8th Feb 1983. He also completed his Driving and Management Officers Course (12) from the prestigious Army School of Mechanical Transport Bangalore in the year of 1983. On 24th July 1985 as a young Captain he joined the Junior Staff Course (27) at the Infantry School, Belgaum and successfully completed on 3rd September 1985. All these trainings honed his skills to become a young leader all his troops. To add on to the experience of the young officer, he joined the Battalion Support Weapons Officers Course in February 1987 which got completed in June 1987 at the Infantry School, Belgaum. The junior officers in the Indian Army are constantly trained to upgrade their skills and knowledge. So on August 1988 he joined the Junior Command Course (53) at the College of Combat, now renamed as Army War College, MHOW, Madhya Pradesh .
Lt Col Ajit V Bhandarkar SC having got trained thoroughly in the Indian Army was then appointed as the Directing Staff, otherwise called Instructor at the prestigious Officers Training Academy, thambaram, Chennai on 26th November 1987. For three long years then Captain Ajit continued to mentor and motivate the gentleman cadets, who had completed their graduation. He was incharge of the Kohima Company and trained the 48th, 49th and the 50th batch of the Short Service Commission Board. On April 1991 as the Major in the Indian Army he completed the Intelligence Staff Officers Course from the prestigious Military Intelligence School & Depot, pune Maharashtra. In the Indian Army the officer is supposed to complete some basic courses and also clear some exams to be eligible for the promotion to the next rank. Likewise, Major Ajit V Bhandarkar cleared the Defence Service Staff Course exam, in the first attempt and joined the Defence Service Staff College, Wellington, Tamil Nadu 49th course in June 1993. He passed out of it, after presenting the dissertation on “Nuclear Environment in Southern Asia, NPT and Nuclear Options” and was honoured with MSC in Defence Studies. To be able to command a battalion and officer had to complete the senior command so also Ajit completed his Senior Command Course (80) on 7th March 1998. After which, Ajit was promoted to the rank of a Lieutenant Colonel on June 1998.
