The Minister of Defence (
ISO
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries.
Me ...
: ''Rakṣā Maṁtrī'') is the head of the
Ministry of Defence and a high ranking minister of the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...
. The Defence minister is one of the most senior offices in the
Union Council of Ministers
The Union Council of Ministers is the Cabinet (government), principal executive organ of the Government of India, which serves to aid and advise the President of India in execution of their functions.Article 74 of the ''Constitution of India' ...
as well as being a high-level minister in the union cabinet. The Defence minister additionally serves as president of the
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, and as chancellor of the
Defence Institute of Advanced Technology and of the
National Defence University.
They are often assisted by a minister of state for defence and less-commonly, the lower-ranked deputy minister of defence.
The first defence minister of independent India was
Baldev Singh Chokkar, who served in Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...
's cabinet during 1947–52.
Rajnath Singh is the current defence minister of India.
Cabinet ministers
Ministers of state
Deputy ministers
See also
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Ministry of Defence (India)
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) or Raksha Mantralay is charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the Indian Armed Forces.
The President of India is the cerem ...
*
Defence ministers
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Defence_(India) Minister_of_
Union ministers of India
Lists of government ministers of India