The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) is the principal military authority and senior-most appointment of the

Indian Armed Forces The Indian Armed Forces are the armed forces, military forces of the India, Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, and the Indian Air Force.—— Additionally, the Indian Ar ...

. Deemed the overall professional head of India’s three armed services, namely, the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

, the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...

and the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

, the CDS is the highest-ranking military officer in service, responsible for overseeing inter-service jointness across all disciplines related to military functioning. Primarily, the office operates on a status of ''

primus inter pares is a Latin phrase meaning first among equals. It is typically used as an honorary title for someone who is formally equal to other members of their group but is accorded unofficial respect, traditionally owing to their seniority in office. H ...

'' i.e., ''first among equals'' with the chiefs of the three services, and functions as the Permanent-Chairman of the

Chiefs of Staff Committee The Chiefs of Staff Committee (CSC) is composed of the most senior military personnel in the British Armed Forces, who advise on operational military matters and the preparation and conduct of military operations. The committee consists of the Ch ...

(COSC) – the inter-service syndicate responsible for ensuring the establishment and preservation of military integration. Statutorily, the CDS is the presiding secretary of the

Department of Military Affairs Department of Military Affairs (DMA) is the department in charge of military matters within the Indian Ministry of Defence. Headed by the Chief of Defence Staff, as its ''ex-officio'' secretary, the DMA provides integration between the Indian ...

, the civil-cum-military entity responsible for fostering professional coordination between the services, and by extension, is also the principal military advisor to the nation’s civilian leadership i.e., the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

on affairs privy to inter-service integration; as such, the office exists primarily as an advisor and adjudicator position, endowed with no operational command control. Since its formal creation in 2020, the CDS is officiated on a rotational basis by four-star officers nominated from any of the three services. Domestically, the office ranks 12th-overall in the

Indian order of precedence The order of precedence of the Republic of India is a list in which the functionaries, dignitaries and officials are listed for ceremonial purposes and has no legal standing and does not reflect the Indian presidential line of succession or the ...

, and is the status-equivalent of the Chief of the Army Staff, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff; internationally, it is identical to the United Kingdom's Chief of the Defence Staff with similar functions to Pakistan's

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee The Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) is, in principle, the highest-ranking and senior most uniformed military officer, typically at four-star rank, in the Pakistan Armed Forces who serves as a principal staff officer (PSO) an ...

Description

Mandate

As the principal military authority of the Indian Armed Forces, the CDS bears responsibility for overseeing two distinct bodies, namely, the

(COSC) and the

(DMA).

Chiefs of Staff Committee

The COSC is an inter-service syndicate of the armed forces, which functions as a principal advisory body dealing with matters related to inter-service coordination, policy formulation and strategy development. It comprises the chiefs of the three armed services, in addition to the CDS - who acts as its ''Permanent Chairman'', responsible for the following duties: * Acting as the principal military advisor to the

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

on all affairs related to inter-service integration, coherence and functioning. * Participating as a member of the Defence Acquisition Council chaired by Minister of Defence and Defence Planning Committee chaired by National Security Advisor. * Exercising command authority over specific inter-service organizations/agencies/commands, namely, the

Defence Cyber Agency The Defence Cyber Agency (DCyA) is an integrated tri-services agency of the Indian Armed Forces. Headquartered in New Delhi, the agency is tasked with handling cyber security threats. The DCyA draws personnel from all three branches of the Arme ...

(DCyA), the Defence Space Agency and the

Armed Forces Special Operations Division The Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD) is an integrated tri-services division of the Indian Armed Forces. The division is tasked to carry out special operations. The AFSOD draws personnel from all three special warfare branches ...

vis-à-vis the

Integrated Defence Staff The Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) is an organisation responsible for fostering coordination and enabling prioritisation across the different branches of the Indian Armed Forces. It is composed of representatives from the Indian Army, Indian Navy ...

(IDS). * Functioning as the Military Adviser to the Nuclear Command Authority. * Ensuring jointness in operation, logistics, transport, training, support services, communications, repairs and maintenance of the three armed services. * Assigning inter-service prioritisation to capital acquisition proposals based on the anticipated budget. and Ensure optimal utilisation of infrastructure and rationalise it through jointness amongst the services. * Implementing Five-Year Defence Capital Acquisition Plan and Two-Year roll-on Annual Acquisition Plans, as a follow up of Integrated Capability Development Plan.

Department of Military Affairs

The DMA is one of the five departments within the Ministry of Defence, which functions as a joint civilian-cum-military syndicate tasked with overseeing administrative duties related to the headquarters of the three armed services, the

(IDS) plus the Territorial Army, and procurement initiatives except for capital acquisitions. Herein, the CDS acts as the department's ''ex-officio'' Secretary, responsible for the following duties: *Answering

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

on all affairs exclusively related to the armed forces. *Facilitating the restructuring of service-specific military commands to ensure the optimal utilization of resources by fostering jointness in operations, principally through the establishment of joint-service theatre commands. *Promoting jointness in procurement, training and staffing for the three armed services through joint-planning and integration of their respective requirements.

Ambiguities

Although the CDS is recognized as the principal authority in the armed forces, the office has been noted to have several ambiguities as to its perceived powers and roles: * The Ministry of Defence is categorized into five departments, of which the Defence Secretary heads the Department of Defence whilst the CDS heads the Department of Military Affairs. However, the Cabinet Secretariat – Manual of Office Procedures, from which the Defence Secretary's powers are derived, states that the office "is the principal adviser of the Minister on all matters of policy and administration within his Ministry/Department, and his responsibility is complete and undivided"; thus, the manual would have indicated the Defence Secretary the officer responsible for the Ministry of Defence's five departments, including the Department of Military Affairs, which obscures the clarity of the powers held by the CDS. * The mandate for defence of India lies with the Department of Defence but procurement initiatives except capital acquisitions lies with CDS-led Department of Military Affairs; this gives birth to a dichotomy where on one hand CDS is expected to prioritise the expenditure between the three services but the wherewithal still lies with the Defence Secretary.

Promotion

The office of CDS has customarily been held by a four-star officer from the three-armed services, specifically, either a

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

air chief marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British i ...

. The appointment of the CDS is initiated by

, wherein the résumés of candidates recommended by the armed services are submitted for review, before being sent to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. At the time of the office's creation, no fixed structure for an

order of succession An order, line or right of succession is the line of individuals necessitated to hold a high office when it becomes vacated, such as head of state or an honour such as a title of nobility.Bipin Rawat, the then Chief of the Army Staff and senior-most amongst the three service chiefs. However, Rawat's unexpected death in 2021 whilst in tenure exposed this flaw and left the office vacant for nine months before a successor. Accordingly, in June 2022, the Ministry of Defence established a permanent set of appointment-cum-succession rules, stating that four-star and three-star officers from the armed services, notwithstanding their status of being active or retired, would be deemed eligible candidates to be appointed, provided they hadn't attained the age of 62 at the time of appointment. As of 2022, the appointment regulations for CDS, whilst same for the three services, are classified distinctively, namely: * Indian Army: ''Army (Amendment) Rules, 2022'' * Indian Navy: ''Naval Ceremonial, Conditions of Service and Miscellaneous (Amendment) Regulations, 2022'' * Indian Air Force: ''Air Force (Amendment) Regulations, 2022'' The first time the regulations were actively exercised was in the appointment of Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan in September 2022; Chauhan, who had retired in May 2021, was recalled to service and promoted to general.

Tenure

Under an initial set of regulations established by the Ministry of Defence in December 2019, the service chiefs from the three services, namely, the Chief of the Army Staff, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff, having completed their mandated three-year tenure or having attained the age of 62, were deemed eligible to be appointed CDS, with the chosen designate tenuring the office to the maximum deemed age of 65; unlike the service chiefs, the CDS has no fixed tenure, but only an upper age limit. The aforementioned 2022 regulations expanded the office's reach, allowing both active and retired officers to occupy the office until the age of 65. Previously, in the event of an abrupt stoppage during the incumbent's tenure - by termination, resignation or sudden demise, the senior-most service chief was made acting-COSC and by extension, an ''

ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by r ...

''-CDS until a suitable successor was appointed; this situation has occurred only once, when General Manoj Mukund Naravane, then-Chief of the Army Staff, was made acting-COSC upon the death of General Rawat, the then-incumbent CDS.

Insignia

Command flag

The office of CDS maintains a separate command flag, regardless of the incumbent appointee's parent service, symbolizing the independence of the position and its associated authority from the armed services. The flag comprising a

maroon Maroon ( , ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word , meaning chestnut. ''Marron'' is also one of the French translations for "brown". Terms describing interchangeable shades, with overlapping RGB ranges, inc ...

field - representing the inter-service jointness, furnished with the

National Flag of India The national flag of India, colloquially called Tiraṅgā (the tricolour), is a horizontal rectangular tricolour flag, the colours being of India saffron, white and India green; with the , a 24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at its centre. It wa ...

in the canton and the ''inter-service insignia'' of the Indian Armed Forces - comprising twin-crossed swords, an unfouled anchor and an

eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

surrounded by an oak wreath in gold-furnishing. Similar to that of the service chiefs, this particular command flag is preferably displayed on the CDS's official car and at his office.

Accoutrements

Whilst the CDS is a rotational appointment held by officers drawn from the three armed services, the CDS is an independent entity, thus mandating a distinct set of accoutrements. Notably, the CDS uniform allows the appointee to retain certain paraphernalia, such as the uniform of the appointee's parent service and its associated decorations; nonetheless, it lacks a

lanyard A lanyard is a length of cord, webbing, or strap that may serve any of various functions, which include a means of attachment, restraint, retrieval, activation, and deactivation. A lanyard is also a piece of rigging used to secure or lowe ...

, unlike the uniforms of the service chiefs. In addition, the office's uniform has several distinct emendations, the primary of which are undermentioned:

List of Office Holders

;Key - Died in office * -

Veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces. A topic o ...

recalled to active service

References

External links

* {{Chief of military by country Ministry of Defence (India) Indian Army Indian Air Force Indian Navy Indian military appointments

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