Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat
The government has appointed two joint secretaries, 13 deputy secretaries and 25 under secretary-rank officials in the newly-created department of military affairs headed by Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat. Officials sources said the appointments were made as per laid down a roadmap to create an enabling set up for the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) to implement the government's vision of ensuring tri-services synergy.
Two joint secretaries, 13 deputy secretaries and 25 undersecretaries were appointed in the department of military affairs. Gen Rawat took charge as the country's first CDS on January 1 in what is seen as a watershed moment for India's military planning to bring in convergence among the three services for effectively dealing with future security challenges.
In the last few days, he held series of meetings with important functionaries of the defence ministry and the three services exploring ways to bring in inter-service synergy and jointness in a time-bound manner.
As CDS, Gen Rawat is also acting as the Principal Military Advisor to the defence minister on all tri-services matters besides helming the Department of Military Affairs (DMA). The CDS will have a key role in ensuring optimum utilisation of allocated budget, ushering in more synergy in procurement, training and operations of the services through joint planning and integration.
The other major mandate of the CDS is to facilitate indigenisation of weapons and equipment to the maximum extent possible while formulating the overall defence acquisition plan for the three Services.
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