In a massive announcement for the three armed forces of the country, PM Narendra Modi today announced that India will now have a post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) that will form the operations of the three forces namely the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force respectively. PM Narendra Modi confirmed this in his Independence Day speech today.
Narendra Modi also said the armed forces are the pride of the country. He said that as time passes, there is a real need for the forces to enhance and sharpen coordination.
“Our forces are India’s pride. To further sharpen coordination between the forces, I want to announce a major decision from the Red Fort: India will have a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS),” PM Narendra Modi said in his I-Day speech.
“This is going to make the forces even more effective,” PM Modi said.
“Experts of this field for long have been demanding this. We have today decided that India will now have a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). Once this post is created, it will provide an effective leadership at the topmost level of the three forces,” PM Modi said.
Narendra Modi also said that this will provide a sensational boost to the reforms of the country’s defence and strategic endeavours.
In case you didn’t know what is Chief of Defence Staff?
The Chief of Defence Staff works as a single-point advisor to the government on all matters related to the military. The officer recruited as the Chief of Defence Staff heads all the three arms of the military like the army, navy and air force respectively.
This means that the three forces will continue to have their own chiefs. Nonetheless, the four-star officers chairing these three services will report to the Chief of Defence Staff, who would be a 5-star officer.