CHIEF OF DEFENCE STAFF

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Context: The government appointed Lt. Gen. Anil Chauhan (retd.), former General Office Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Army Commander, as the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). The post has been vacant since the death of the country’s first CDS, Gen. Bipin Rawat, in a helicopter crash in December 2021.

 

Details:

• In a career spanning nearly 40 years, Lt. Gen Anil Chauhan had held several command, staff and instrumental appointments and had extensive experience in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast India, the statement said.
• In June, the government amended the Service Rules of the Army, Navy and Air Force allowing retired Service Chiefs and three-star rank officers eligible for consideration for the country’s top military post.
• However, with an age limit of 62 years on the date of appointment, retired Service Chiefs were largely ruled out especially so for the present consideration.
• Post-retirement, Lt. Gen. Chauhan took over as the Military Adviser in the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) from Lt. Gen. Vinod G. Khandare who stepped down from the post in October 2021.
• In December 2019, the government approved the creation of the post of CDS who would also function as the Principal Military Adviser to the Defence Minister and Permanent Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC).
• In addition, the DMA was created as the fifth department in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) with the CDS functioning as its Secretary.

More on the news:

• Any serving or retired Lieutenant General, Air Marshal and Vice Admiral under the age of 62 years will be eligible for the post of Chief of Defence Staff.
• This essentially opens the doors for the second-highest active rank officers of the tri-services to possibly supersede their seniors -- the chief of the army, air force, or navy -- to take on the role and widens the pool from which a CDS can be appointed.
• Another change in eligibility criteria is that recently retired service chiefs and vice chiefs will also be eligible for the post, though there's an age ceiling of 62 years.
• The move paves the way for India to have a new CDS after General Bipin Rawat, India's first Chief of Defence Staff died last year. India has been without a CDS since then.
• The government has issued separate notifications as part of the Air Force Act, the Army Act and the Navy Act to make the provisions to make any serving or retired Lt General, Air Marshal or Vice Admiral eligible to be appointed as the CDS.
• Government may extend the service of the Chief of Defence Staff for such a period as it may deem necessary subject to a maximum age of 65 years.
• Identical notifications were issued under the Army Act 1950 and the Navy Act 1957.
• The tenure of three service chiefs is three years of service or when they turn 62, whichever is earlier.

 

About:

• The Chief of Defence Staff runs the Department of Military Affairs in the Ministry of Defence and is principally responsible for getting the armed forces better integrated rather than operating in silos as has been the case for decades.
• This includes the creation of new military commands which integrate the Army, Air Force, and Navy to fight together.
• A high-level committee set up to examine the gaps in India's security system in the wake of the Kargil war in 1999 had recommended the appointment of the CDS as a single-point military adviser to the defence minister.
• The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) is a post that will act as the single-point advisor to the Government of India. The officer concerned will be in a position to advise on matters related to all the three services -- Army, Navy and Air Force -- thus making India's armed forces integrated.

 

Need for CDS:

• Will strengthen coordination between the three forces: Army, Navy and Air Force.
• Facilitate 'jointmanship' and render single-point military advice to the government on matters of national security
• Reconcile possible differences" in service-specific opinions to enable the government to arrive at considered military decisions.
• CDS would play a critical role in fostering inter-services jointness in terms of budgeting, equipment purchases, training, joint doctrines and planning of military operations-an imperative of modern warfare.
• India may be the only country in world where, a generalist, civil servant occupies defense secretary post to advise government on defense requirements and preparation of operational plans.
• It will do away with duplications occurring in the functioning of three forces.

 

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