Indian Defence University (IDU), formerly Indian National Defence University (INDU) is a defence service university set up for the affiliation of training academies of union government defence servants working under the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. These union government defence servants can collectively be termed as generalist branch and specialist branch of the Indian Military. It is not to be confused with the

Rashtriya Raksha University Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU), formerly Raksha Shakti University (RSU), is a central university and an Institute of National Importance located in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. It has a specialization in national and internal security. It ...

(RRU) which is focused on the police and para-military

Central Armed Police Forces Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) is the collective name of central police organisations in India under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). These are technically paramilitary forces formerly known as Central Para-Military Forces (CPMF). Sinc ...

(CAPF), whereas IDU is focused on the military. It is located at

Binola Binola is a village in Gurgaon district of Indian States and territories of India, state of Haryana. It is 8 km from Manesar, 23 km from Gurgaon and 1 km south of junction of National Highway 48 (India), NH48 with Western Periphera ...

village in Gurugram district of

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ...

state in India that is being built.India’s still waiting for a defence university that was proposed in 1967, while Pakistan has 2
The Print, 17 Oct 2020. It is proposed to be one of the Institutes of National Importance (INIs). It was first proposed in 1967, but is unlikely to become operational in the foreseeable future, despite periodic optimism.Cabinet approves setting up of bus bay near Indian Defence University Land in Gurugram, Haryana
business-standard.com, 20 Feb 2018. As of January 2020, only the perimeter road and boundary walls have been constructed, the construction of the main building and teaching infrastructure could not commence until the "Indian National Defence University (INDU) Act, 2015" is passed, which is still awaiting approval from the Union Cabinet and the Parliament of India in the form of a draft bill. It is located on the eastern flank of Delhi–Jaipur Expressway (

NH 48 National Highway 48 (NH 48) is a National Highway of India that starts at Delhi and terminates at Chennai traversing through seven states of India. It has a total length of 2807 km (1744 miles). NH 48 passes through the states of Delh ...

), just southwest of Pachgaon Chowk on

Western Peripheral Expressway The Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE) or Kundli–Manesar–Palwal Expressway (KMP Expressway), is an operational 6-lane (3 lanes in each direction),National Security Guard The National Security Guard (NSG), commonly known as Black Cats, is a counter-terrorism unit of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was founded on 16 October 1984, following Operation Blue Star, for combating terrorist activities and ...

base, northwest of Heritage Transport Museum, southwest of Gurugram CBD, and southwest of IGI International Airport.

NHAI The National Highways Authority of India or NHAI (Hindi: भारतीय राष्ट्रीय राजमार्ग प्राधिकरण) is an autonomous agency of the Government of India, set up in 1995 (Act 1988) and i ...

has established a bus bay for the university at NH48.

History

Conception

The idea for this autonomous institution was initially conceived in 1967, strongly recommended by "Sethna Committee" in 1980 and the 1999

Kargil War The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC). In India, the conflict is also referre ...

Review Committee, as well as the "Group Minister's report on reforming national security system" in 2001 recommended its establishment to then Home Minister

L. K. Advani Lal Krishna Advani (born 8 November 1927) is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. Advani is one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is a longtime memb ...

, and also by

K. Subrahmanyam Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyam (19 January 1929 – 2 February 2011) was a prominent international strategic affairs analyst, journalist and former Indian civil servant. Considered a proponent of '' Realpolitik'', Subrahmanyam was an influential v ...

, the proposal was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2010, Prime Minister

Dr. Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

laid the foundation stone of the Indian National Defence University (INDU) at Binola in Gurgaon on 23 May 2013. Draft

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pla ...

was put online in August 2016 for the public consultation, but since then the bill is still awaiting approval from the

Union Cabinet The Union Council of Ministers Article 58 of the ''Constitution of India'' is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which is responsible for being the senior decision making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by t ...

and the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of ...

. After the extensive brainstorming with then-defence minister

Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jai ...

and other ministers, the revised bill was finalised in December 2017 and it was renamed from Indian National Defence University (INDU) to Indian Defence University (IDU). The detailed project report for the university will be prepared after it has been approved by the cabinet.

Act of Parliament - pending

As of october 2020, the draft bill was still lying with the prime minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

, awaiting his and cabinet's approval. India has no defense university even those such university in India was first proposed in 1967, while Pakistan already has two defense universities. As of September 2019, there was no evidence that the university will ever open, despite earlier optimism. "The country certainly needs a ‘world-class’ INDU to inject some much-needed strategic culture in governance as well as encourage robust cross-linkages between the executive and academia. Almost all major countries, from the US to China, have national defence niarsities (sic) to develop national security leaders as well as undertake long-term strategic studies and threat assessments."

Campus development

Once the act is passed in the parliament, IDU will be developed in phases, and the first phase will take 3 to 4 years. Meanwhile, the IDU is operating from its temporary location at

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the ...

Legal framework

IDU will be established through an act of Parliament, it will be autonomous and not under the UGC. It will be a teaching research and affiliating university as well as a think tank.IDU
IDS, accessed 29 nov 2022.

The university

Objectives

The INDU aims to undertake the following: * Promote research-oriented national

defence policy Military policy (also called defence policy or defense policy) is public policy dealing with multinational security and the military. It comprises the measures and initiatives that governments do or do not take in relation to decision-making and ...

. * High level

leadership development Leadership development is the process which helps expand the capacity of individuals to perform in leadership roles within organizations. Leadership roles are those that facilitate execution of an organization's strategy through building alignmen ...

of officers for military duties and policy formulation responsibilities * Develop and propagate higher education in defence studies like defence management and

defence science and technology Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

. * University

think tanks A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental org ...

for providing policy formulations inputs. The much needed pending three reforms for the national security and military readiness are the integrated tri services operational commands under the Chief of Defence Staff, the

make in India Make in India is an initiative by the Government of India to create and encourage companies to develop, manufacture and assemble products made in India and incentivize dedicated investments into manufacturing. The policy approach was to crea ...

indigenous defence manufacturing, and the reform in military education in India. While some progress has been made towards the first two, but the reforms in military education in India are still lacking. The current military training in India trains officers with "narrow professional skills to command companies, battalions and brigades, or perform staff duties at various levels, there is practically no attempt to give the officers a sense of the larger contexts – strategic, political and international – in which the armed forces function. It is only at the highest training establishment, the National Defence College, that senior one-star officers get exposed to some of these issues. This is too little and too late. This outmoded approach to training impacts the quality of human capital at all levels in the services. Yet, no government has paid serious attention to this. The fate of the long-heralded Indian National Defence University is symptomatic of the political leadership’s neglect of this crucial area."Defence University to Defence Chief – Modi govt now has political capital for the big reforms

ThePrint The Print is an Indian online newspaper, owned by Printline Media Pvt Ltd. It was launched by journalist Shekhar Gupta in August 2017. History Printline Media Pvt. Ltd, founded by journalist Shekhar Gupta, was incorporated in New Delhi, I ...

, 2019.

Administration

This autonomous University will be instituted by the Act of the

, and

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murm ...

will be a Visitor, and the

Defence Minister A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in s ...

will be the Chancellor. INDU will be governed as per its own norms and will be responsible to promote coordination and interaction between Institutions of Armed Forces or establishments of the country. Defence training institutions will be affiliated to award degrees. The institute will be headed by a President, who will be a three-star serving General or equivalent officer with C-in-C status on appointment, and a Vice-President, who will be a civilian. The university formed on the lines of

Indian Institutes of Technology The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are central government owned public technical institutes located across India. They are under the ownership of the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. They are governed by the Inst ...

(IIT) and

Indian Institutes of Management The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are central government-owned-public business schools for management offering undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive programmes along with some additional courses in the field of busines ...

(IIMs) will have the teaching faculty composed of military personnel and civilians in the ratio of 1:1.

Constituent schools

The university will have the following constituent units: * Centre for Distance and Open Learning (CDOL). * School of Defence Management (SDM). * School of Defence Technology (SDT). * School of National Security Studies (SNSS). * School of Foreign Languages (SFL).

Affiliated institutes of Indian military

Following existing institutes will be affiliated to the university: *

College of Defence Management The College of Defence Management (CDM) is an Indian defence service training institution imparting management training to defence servants. CDM is entrusted with the responsibility of instilling contemporary management thoughts, concepts an ...

(CDM, Secunderabad, Telangana). *

Defence Services Staff College , motto_lang = sa , mottoeng = ''To War with Wisdom'' , established = (as the ''Army Staff College'', Deolali) , type = Defence Service Training Institute , affiliation = , endowment = , administrative_staff = , faculty = , pres ...

(DSSC, Wellington, Tamil Nadu). *

National Defence Academy The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the joint defence service training institute of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three services i.e. the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force train together before they go on ...

(NDA, Khadakwasla, Maharashtra). * National Defence College (NDC,

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

). * School of Foreign Languages (SFL,

Courses

At least 66% students will be from the

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

and the remaining 33% will be from the

Paramilitary forces of India India maintains 10 paramilitary forces. List of Paramilitary forces From 1986 to 2011 the Central Armed Police Forces were considered as Central Police Forces (CPF). However, as per their respective acts they all are Armed Police Forces. R ...

Police in India Indian law is enforced by a number of agencies. Unlike many federal nations, the constitution of India delegates the maintenance of law and order primarily to the states and territories. At the federal level, some of India's paramilitar ...

and civilians. The university will offer doctoral and post-doctoral research, post-graduate studies as well as higher studies through distance learning to military and civilians.

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

and

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

courses will include

strategic thinking Strategic thinking is a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving a goal or set of goals. As a cognitive activity, it produces thought. When applied in an organizational strategic management process, strate ...

Chinese studies Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ...

, Eurasian studies, Southeast Asian studies, neighborhood studies,

international security International security, also called global security is a term which refers to the measures taken by states and international organizations, such as the United Nations, European Union, and others, to ensure mutual survival and safety. These mea ...

and national security strategy, maritime security studies,

wargaming A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

and

military simulation Military simulations, also known informally as war games, are simulations in which theories of warfare can be tested and refined without the need for actual hostilities. Military simulations are seen as a useful way to develop tactical, strateg ...

, joint logistics,

counter-insurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionar ...

and

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...

and material acquisition.Land acquisition for the Indian National Defence University started - India Today
/ref>

Courses offered presently

As of Nov 2022, IDU offers only following 3 courses by SFL (School of Foreign Languages) only from temporary campus at Jodhpur: # Certificate of Proficiency (COP): 1 year part time course. # Advance Diploma of Proficiency (ADOP): 1 year part time course for who already possess the COP. # Interpretership Course: full time course that ranges from 16.5 to 23.5 months long course.

Campus

Main campus at Binola in Gurugram

The 205 acres and 15

marla Marla is a town and locality in the Australian state of South Australia located in the state's north-west about north-west of the state capital of Adelaide and about south of the town of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. History Marla ...

land for the campus was acquired by the

Haryana government The Government of Haryana, also known as the State Government of Haryana, or locally as the State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Haryana and its 22 districts. It consists of an executive, ceremonially led ...

and handed over to the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

in September 2012 and found stone was laid in April 2013. Of the 205 acre 15 marla land, 2 acre 3 kanal 9.5 marla was transferred to the revenue department of Haryana Government for building a road to provide access to the farmers from NH8 to their farm land,Construction of Defence University in Gurgaon begins
Economic Times, 11 July 2018. thus leaving 202 acres, 5 kanal and 5.5 marla for the university campus. However, Bhumi Puja was held in 2018 during which Air Marshal A.S. Bhonsle of Integrated Defence Staff laid the first brick for the commencement of construction of boundary wall, perimeter road, watch towers and guard rooms, construction of which has been completed as of December 2019 but the construction of buildings has not yet started, "only five to seven army officials visit the site every Sunday with two security guards looking after the area".Stone laid in 2013, just boundary walls come up at country’s first defence varsity
Hindustan Times, 22 December 2019. Then Union Minister of state for defence, Subhash Bhamre, had told the Lok Sabha in 2016 that "the construction work on the project will start once the Indian National Defence University (INDU) Act, 2015, is passed by Parliament", which is still pending approval from the union cabinet and the national parliament.

Jodhpur temporary campus

Since 2018, IDU has been operating from its temporary campus at officers' hostel at Jodhpur.

References

{{Education in Asia Universities in Haryana Military education and training in India