The newly appointed CDS Lt General Anil Chauhan has had an illustrious career spanning 40 years.

CDS wears multiple hats — Principal Military Adviser to the Defence Minister; Permanent Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC); Secretary, Department of Military Affairs (DMA) in the Defence Ministry and Head of Integrated Defence Staff (IDS).

Each of these roles are defined by a given set of responsibilities, with overlap in some functions and Gen Chauhan gets over three-and-half years to work through his mandate before he retires at 65. Major military reforms come with long gestation periods, and can be effected only with collective agreement of military leadership, consent of the bureaucracy and most importantly, the backing of political leadership. There are three crucial areas that merit the CDS’ immediate attention.

Three reforms

The first reform is the creation of theatre commands. As future wars will necessitate integrated land-air-sea operations, theatre commands are considered imperative for effective functioning of tri-service battle groups. India currently has 17 single-service commands which need be reduced and restructured into four or five integrated theatre commands including separate commands for cybersecurity and air defence which are actively under contemplation.

The second thrust area would be to transform the services into lean, agile, and tech-friendly potent entities, working through prevailing resource constraints. India’s defence budget lingers around two per cent of GDP compared with China’s 3.5 per cent. Interoperability of defence equipment across services, joint initiatives in planning, procurement and maintenance should be driven through HQ IDS like never before.

With pay and pension accounting for 60 per cent of the defence budget, defence procurements and maintenance have been the casualty. There is a need for innovative reforms to improve the revenue-capital ratio which is currently at a worrisome 70-30.

The third would be a gradual but clearly defined roadmap for reduction in defence imports and rapid indigenisation of the defence industrial complex. To boost private sector participation, the government recently earmarked 68 per cent of the capital procurement budget for defence for domestic industry. Working closely with Department of Defence Production in the MoD, CDS has his role cut out of being a catalyst in this process.

The writer is a retired Group Captain of the Indian Air Force and now General Manager, Madras Management Association