CHIEF OF DEFENCE STAFF (CDS)

About:

• Lt Gen Chauhan will also function as Secretary, Department of Military Affairs with effect from the date of his assumption of charge. In a career spanning over nearly 40 years, Lt Gen Anil Chauhan had held several command, staff and instrumental appointments and had extensive experience in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and North-East India.
• The post of Chief of Defence Staff has been lying vacant since General Bipin Rawat's death in a helicopter crash on 8th December last year.
• The Chief of Defence Staff of the Indian Armed Forces (CDS) is the military head and permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) of the Indian Armed Forces.
• The Chief of Defence Staff is the highest-ranking uniformed officer on active duty in the Indian military and chief military adviser to the Minister of Defence. The Chief also heads the Department of Military Affairs.