The current membership of the Chiefs of Staff Committee:
Chief of Defence Staff The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) is the
principal military authority and
senior-most appointment of the Indian Armed Forces. Introduced in 2019, the CDS operates on a status of
primus inter pares i.e.,
first among equals with the Chiefs of Staff and functions as the COSC's
Permanent Chairman, independent of the Chiefs of Staff. As Permanent Chairman-COSC, the CDS maintains the following responsibilities within the forum: • Acting as the principal military advisor to the
Minister of Defence on all affairs related to inter-service integration, coherence and functioning. • Participating as a member of the Defence Acquisition Council chaired by Minister of Defence and Defence Planning Committee chaired by
National Security Advisor. • Functioning as the Military Adviser to the
Nuclear Command Authority.
Chiefs of Staff , the
Navy, the
Air Force and the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, in 2016. The service chiefs (
also referred to as the Chiefs of Staff) of the three services are, namely, the
Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), the
Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) and
Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) - all of whom are customarily
four-star officers. As voting members of the COSC, the Chiefs of Staff function in the undermentioned manner: • Functioning with the
dual role of leadership as the service's statutory
chief of staff and activity as its
ex-officio commander i.e., in the former role, overseeing the staff-cum-administrative duties of the services; in the latter role, overseeing the service's operational duties. • Advising the COSC and the civilian leadership on matters privy to their respective services; this is in contrast to the CDS, whose advice reflects a comprehensive nature involving multiple, rather than concerned inputs. • Deliberating inter-service issues to foster joint-realization of the country's national security objectives. • The
(Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, which defines the authority, responsibility and obligations of government departments, prescribes that the responsibility for the
defence of India thereof is placed with the Defence Secretary; there is no mention of the Chiefs of Staffs or their respective SHQs. The IDS, which by role also acts as an inter-service interface for coordinating the armed services, is led by the
Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (CISC) - a
three-star officer, who is a non-voting member of the COSC. • Supervise the co-ordination of Long Range Plans, Five Years Plans and annual budgetary proposals for the three services and presenting coordinated set of proposals to Minister of Defence after discussion with Chiefs of Staff in COSC and Defence Secretary. • Coordinating and analyzing critical deficiencies in force capabilities, assessing the impact of such deficiencies on national military objectives. ==History==