The chief of defence staff will be a single-point military advisor to the defence ministers on military matters.

LT General (retd) DB Shekatkar, Chairman of Committee on Combat Capabilities Enhancement of Armed Forces has said, “India needs a chief of defence staff but his role, responsibilities and accountability have to be defined as per Indian requirements and Ministry of Defence should not directly adopt a western model.”

The general has just submitted his report to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who recently said a decision on appointment of CDS will be taken after studying the Shekatkar committee report.

The 11-member committee has submitted a 550-page report to the Ministry of Defence. “Its contents are classified but on principle I can tell you a CDS is long overdue. We should not adopt a western model but keeping in mind the Indian environment appoint a CDS,” Shekatkar said speaking

WHO IS CHIEF OF DEFENCE STAFF?

Parrikar had in May 2016 set up a committee to work on enhancement of combat capabilities of the Indian armed forces. “There is need for integration of forces at two levels. One within the three services and the other with the ministry of defence. CDS should not be symbolic and the integration should not be cosmetic,” he added.

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The CDS will be a single-point military advisor to the defence ministers on military matters. He should have authority over the three chiefs but the chiefs are over all responsible for the functioning of the three forces. Keeping in mind future warfare enhancement of combat capabilities formation of a cyber space command and special forces command are included.

There is likely to be a major debate on need to reorganise the armed forces to make them combat-ready for future wars. A section within the security establishment is of the opinion that hybrid wars, with the adversary using terror as a weapon is a bigger and immediate threat, more than conventional war in the near future. The elaborate report running into 550 pages is being studied by Parrikar and delves deep into aspects like joint planning, training and higher defence management.

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WHAT DOES THE REPORT LOOK LIKE

The report looks into future requirements of the armed forces in terms of the operations to be undertaken. Despite joint training at the level of NDA initially, Defence Services Staff College at the level of majors and National Defence College at the level of Brigadiers, jointness in planning is missing in the armed forces.

“Instead of different army, navy and air force war colleges – there should be an integrated war college for joint planning of operations. This can be at the level of commanding officers.”