Defence News India: In his first meeting, India’s first Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat pushed for close coordination among three services as mandated by the government. He held his first meeting with senior officials of all the three forces at the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (Hq IDS) on Wednesday. General Rawat directed various branch heads to come up with recommendations for inter-service synergy and jointness in a time bound manner, said the ministry of defence in a statement.
General Bipin Rawat also directed that a proposal to create Air Defence Command be prepared by June 30, 2020.
He also set out priorities for execution of synergy by June 30 and December, 31 2020.
Some of the areas identified for jointness and synergy include creation of common logistics support pools in stations where two or more services have their presence.
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Emphasising on the collegiate system of functioning, General Rawat directed that all three services and Coast Guard must be consulted and their views obtained in a time bound manner.
“Decisions will, however, be taken to ensure optimisation of resources. Efforts will be made to cut out infructuous ceremonial activities, which are manpower intensive,” said the ministry of defence.
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Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat stressed that all must work towards accomplishing desired results and coming up with healthy views and ideas.
After demitting the office Chief of Army Staff (COAS) on December 31, he assumed the charge as the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff on January 1 as a four star general. He will also be secretary of newly created department of military affairs.
As the CDS, General Rawat is the Principal Military Advisor to the country’s defence minister on all matters related to all three services and coast guard.
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He will have a key role in ensuring optimum utilisation of allocated budget, usher in more synergy in procurement, training &operations of the Services through joint planning and integration.
The CDS will also facilitate indigenisation of weapons and equipment to the maximum extent possible while formulating the overall defence acquisition plan for the three Services.
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