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 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 ...

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 Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), is an Indian think tank for advanced research in international relations, especially defence, strategic and security issues. It also provides training to civilian, military ...

, 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 Rajnath Singh (; born 10 July 1951) is an Indian politician and lecturer who is serving the Defence Minister of India since 20 May 2019. He was also the Deputy Leader of the House, Lok Sabha since 2014. He also served the Home Minister in th ...

is the current defence minister of India.

Cabinet ministers

Ministers of state

Deputy ministers

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Defence_(India) Minister_of_ Union ministers of India Lists of government ministers of India

Cabinet ministers

Ministers of state

Deputy ministers

See also

References