On 9 May, the government announced the appointment of retired Lt Gen N S Raja Subramani, former Vice Chief of the Army Staff and Central Army Commander, as India’s third Chief of Defence Staff, with effect from 31 May. Presently Military Advisor to the National Security Council Secretariat, he takes over at a pivotal moment in India’s quest for military transformation. He inherits a tri-services integration plan prepared after 6.5 years of deliberation by two Chiefs of Defence Staff and a dozen Service Chiefs. The onus will be on him to pilot the plan and, once approved by the government, implement it.
The General has a career profile distributed across the theatres he would be creating, as well as the requisite experience in higher decision-making and the political functioning of the government. In the western theatre, he has commanded a Strike Corps. In the northern theatre, he has commanded a Division in the northeast, functioned as the Chief of Staff of Northern Command, and served as Army Commander of Central Command. He has commanded a unit in a counter-insurgency area in the northeast. He has been a Military Advisor in Kazakhstan and served as the Deputy Director General of Military Intelligence.He has attended the Joint Services Command and Staff College in the UK, a country with a functioning CDS system. At the apex level, he has held the appointment of Vice Chief of the Army Staff and participated in decision-making and coordination during the successful tri-service conflict, Operation Sindoor. His tenure as Military Advisor to the NSCS has given him an insight into the political, diplomatic, and inter-ministerial facets of national security. His appointment through “deep selection” post-retirement implies that he enjoys the confidence of the government.
