Lt Gen N.S. Raja Subramani Appointed as India’s Next CDS

The Union Government has appointed Lieutenant General N. S. Raja Subramani (Retd) as the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and Secretary, Department of Military Affairs (DMA), succeeding General Anil Chauhan after his tenure ends on May 30, 2026.

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¨     Lt Gen Raja Subramani is currently serving as Military Adviser in the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) under National Security Advisor Ajit Doval since September 2025.

¨     He earlier served as Vice Chief of the Army Staff and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Command.

¨     Commissioned into the 8th Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles in December 1985, he has over four decades of operational, command, instructional, and staff experience, including counter-insurgency operations in Assam under Operation Rhino and command of the Indian Army’s premier strike formation, 2 Corps, on the Western Front.

¨     For his distinguished service, he has been awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM), Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM), Sena Medal (SM), and Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM).

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)

¨     The post of CDS was created in December 2019 following long-pending recommendations of the 1999 Kargil Review Committee and the subsequent Group of Ministers (GoM) report of 2001.

¨     The CDS acts as the Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) and serves as the Principal Military Adviser to the Defence Minister on tri-service matters.

¨     The CDS also functions as Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), created within the Ministry of Defence in 2019 to promote greater civil-military integration and jointness among the armed forces.

¨     The office of CDS aims to enhance coordination among the Army, Navy and Air Force through integrated planning, joint logistics, theatre commands, modernisation, and indigenous defence procurement.

¨     General Bipin Rawat became India’s first CDS on December 31, 2019.