Chief of Integrated Defence Staff

The Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) is the statutory office that heads the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS), the principal inter-service syndicate of the Indian Armed Forces.^[5] Customarily held by a three-star officer nominated from either of India's three armed services, the CISC is the second-highest authority responsible for inter-service jointness, subordinate only to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).^[6]

Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee
Flag of the Integrated Defence Staff
Incumbent Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit AVSM VM VSM since 1 May 2025
Indian Armed Forces
Type	Vice chief of defence
Status	Executive-in-charge of the Integrated Defence Staff.
Abbreviation	CISC
Member of	Chiefs of Staff Committee[1] Integrated Defence Staff[1] Vice Chiefs Committee[1]
Reports to	Chief of Defence Staff
Seat	South Hutments, Kashmir House, Rajaji Marg, New Delhi[2]
Appointer	Appointments Committee of the Cabinet Ministry of Defence
Term length	No fixed term
Formation	1 October 2001; 23 years ago (2001-10-01)
First holder	Lieutenant General Pankaj Joshi PVSM, AVSM[3]
Deputy	Deputy Chiefs of the Integrated Defence Staff (DCIDS)[4]
Website	Official website

By function, the CISC is the executive-in-charge of the IDS, and thus, maintains oversight over inter-service coordination on crucial disciplines related to military functioning, specifically, intelligence, doctrine, joint planning, budgetary allocations and training.^[1] In addition, the CISC serves as a non-voting member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee - of which the CDS is its Chairman; thus by definition, the CISC reports to the CDS, who is the final authority on military jointness.^[1]

Domestically, the CISC ranks 23rd-overall in the Indian order of precedence and is the status-equivalent to the Vice Chiefs of Staff of the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force; internationally, it is identical to Canada's Vice Chief of the Defence Staff and Spain's Chief of the Joint Defence Staff.^[7][8]

Description

Mandate

As the penultimate authority (second only to the CDS) tasked with the affairs of inter-service administration of the armed forces, the CISC participates in two crucial bodies: the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) and the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS).^[9]

Chiefs of Staff Committee

The COSC is an inter-service syndicate of the armed forces, which functions as a principal advisory body dealing with matters related to inter-service coordination, policy formulation and strategy development. It comprises the CDS - who acts as its Permanent Chairman and the Chiefs of Staff of the three armed services; the CISC is also a member, albeit a non-voting one.^[9]

• To supervise and control the IDS - which acts as the arm-cum-secretariat of the CDS and the COSC.^[9]
• To chair the Defence Crisis Management Group.^[9]
• To 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 and the Defence Secretary.^[9]
• To coordinate, analyze, assess and remove the impact of any discovered critical deficiencies on the three armed services.^[9]
• To coordinate, conduct and plan inter-service training.^[9]

Vice Chief's Committee

In addition to the COSC, the CISC chairs the VCC, which comprises the Vice Chiefs of Staff of the three services; this being maintained since the status of CISC itself is deemed equivalent to that of a Vice Chief.^[9]

• To deal with any and all inter-service issues.^[9]
• To resolve inter-service disputes.^[9]
• To provide military recommendations to the Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).^[9]

Structure

Since its inception in 2001 the office of CISC is held on a rotational basis by the three armed services, with a three-star officer being the customary occupant.^[10]

Additionally, the CISC is assisted by the undermentioned subordinate officers, all of whom are also three-star officers:

• Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Policy Planning and Force Development) - DCIDS (PP&FD).^[11]
• Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Doctrine, Organisation and Training) - DCIDS (DOT).^[11]
• Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Operations) - DCIDS (OPS).^[11]
• Director General Defence Intelligence Agency & Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Intelligence) - DGDIA & DCIDS (Int).^[11]
• Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Medical Branch) - DCIDS (Med).^[11]

List of officeholders

No.	Portrait	Name (born–died)	Term of office			Service branch	Ref.
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Lieutenant General Pankaj Joshi PVSM, AVSM	1 October 2001	30 September 2003	1 year, 364 days	Indian Army	[3]
2		Vice Admiral Raman Puri PVSM, AVSM, VSM	20 October 2003	28 February 2006	2 years, 131 days	Indian Navy	[12]
3		Lieutenant General H. S. Lidder UYSM, YSM, VSM	2 March 2006	30 September 2008	2 years, 212 days	Indian Army	[13]
4		Air Marshal Suresh Chandra Mukul AVSM, VM, VSM	1 October 2008	30 December 2010	2 years, 90 days	Indian Air Force	[14][15]
5		Vice Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi AVSM, YSM, NM, VSM	31 December 2010	3 July 2011	184 days	Indian Navy	[16]
6		Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha AVSM, NM	4 July 2011	30 August 2011	57 days	Indian Navy	[17]
7		Vice Admiral S. P. S. Cheema AVSM, NM	31 August 2011	1 November 2012	1 year, 62 days	Indian Navy	[18]
8		Lieutenant General N. C. Marwah PVSM, AVSM	2 November 2012	30 June 2013	240 days	Indian Army	[19]
9		Lieutenant General Anil Chait PVSM, AVSM, VSM	1 July 2013	30 June 2014	364 days	Indian Army	[20]
10		Air Marshal P. P. Reddy VM	1 July 2014	30 October 2016	2 years, 121 days	Indian Air Force	[21][22]
11		Lieutenant General Satish Dua UYSM, SM, VSM	31 October 2016	31 October 2018	2 years, 0 days	Indian Army	[23]
12		Lieutenant General P. S. Rajeshwar PVSM, AVSM, VSM	1 November 2018	30 November 2019	1 year, 29 days	Indian Army	[24]
13		Vice Admiral R. Hari Kumar AVSM, VSM	2 December 2019	28 February 2021	1 year, 88 days	Indian Navy	[25]
14		Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain PVSM, AVSM, VSM	28 February 2021	30 September 2021	214 days	Indian Navy	[26]
15		Air Marshal Balabhadra Radha Krishna AVSM, SC	30 September 2021	31 March 2023	214 days	Indian Air Force	[27]
16		Lieutenant General Johnson P Mathew PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM	03 April 2023	30 April 2025	2 years, 27 days	Indian Army	[28][29]
17		Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit AVSM, VM, VSM	1 May 2025	Incumbent	18 days	Indian Air Force	[30]

List of CIDS by branches of service

Indian Army - 7
Indian Navy - 6
Indian Air Force - 4

See also

Inter-service offices

• Chiefs of Staff Committee
• Chief of Defence Staff

Other offices of the Indian Armed Forces

• Chief of the Army Staff
• Chief of the Naval Staff
• Chief of the Air Staff