Additional Secretary and Joint Secretaries under Department of Military Affairs

The Department of Military Affairs (DMA), under the Defence Ministry, now has designated senior officers, including uniformed personnel as Additional Secretary and Joint Secretaries.

Context

The Department of Military Affairs (DMA), under the Defence Ministry, now has designated senior officers, including uniformed personnel as Additional Secretary and Joint Secretaries.

About the appointments

• Function: Till now, the uniformed officers were holding positions only in officiating capacity.
  • All files had to be moved to Secretary, DMA for decisions.
  • This will no longer be neededbecause each appointment can now dispose of files according to the powers delegated.
    
• Duties of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA): The DMA will be in charge of the affairs of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.
• • CDS will have no operational control over individual organisations that will remain with the respective service chiefs.
  • The DMA will look after all the procurements exclusive to the three services.
  • It promotes ‘jointness’ in procurement, training and staffing for the services through the joint planning and integration of their requirements.