The defence secretary (ISO: Rakṣā Saciv) is the administrative head of the Ministry of Defence. This post is held by a senior Indian Administrative Service officer of the rank of secretary to the Government of India. The current defence secretary is Shri. Rajesh Kumar Singh IAS.
As a secretary to the Government of India, the Defence Secretary ranks 23rd on Indian order of precedence, along with all other secretaries to the Government of India, and lieutenant generals in the grade of army commander.
Powers, responsibilities and postings
The defence secretary is the administrative head of the Ministry of Defence, and is the principal adviser to the minister of defence on all matters of policy and administration within the Ministry of Defence.
The role of defence secretary is as follows: To act as the administrative head of the Ministry of Defence. The responsibility in this regard is complete and undivided. To act as the chief adviser to the defence minister on all aspects of policy and administrative affairs. To represent the Ministry of Defence before the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament of India. The defence secretary is responsible for coordinating the activities of the other departments (Department of Defence Production, Department of Military Affairs, Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare and Department of Defence Research and Development) in the Ministry of Defence. To act as the first among equals among the secretaries in the Ministry of Defence.
Emolument, accommodation and perquisites The defence secretary is eligible for a diplomatic passport. The official earmarked residence of the defence secretary is 7, New Moti Bagh, New Delhi, a Type-VIII bungalow.
The salary and emolument in this rank is equivalent to chief secretaries of state governments and to Vice Chief of the Army Staff/GOC-in-C and its equivalents in the Indian Armed Forces. +Defence secretary monthly pay and allowancesBase salary as per the 7th Pay Commission (per month)Pay matrix levelSourcesPay level 17
List of defence secretaries +List of defence secretariesS. No.PortraitNameAssumed officeDemitted office1 G. S. Bhalja21 July 19476 October 19472 H. M. Patel7 October 194720 July 19533 B. B. Ghosh21 July 195312 November 19534 M. K. Vellodi13 November 195313 June 19575 O. Pulla Reddy14 June 195721 November 19626 P. V. R. Rao21 November 19623 April 19657 A. D. Pandit4 April 19654 August 1965(5) P. V. R. Rao5 August 196531 December 19668 V. Shankar1 January 19672 November 19689 H. C. Sarin3 November 19687 December 197010 K. B. Lall8 December 197018 May 197311 Govind Narain19 May 197331 May 197512 D. R. Kohli1 June 197531 March 197713 Gian Prakash4 April 197726 March 197814 S. Banerjee27 March 19783 July 197915 J. A. Dave9 July 197910 April 198016 K. P. A. Menon5 May 198011 August 198117 P. K. Kaul12 August 198130 June 198318 S. M. Ghosh26 July 198325 June 198419 S. K. Bhatnagar6 July 198431 May 198820 T. N. Seshan1 June 198822 February 198921 Naresh Chandra22 February 198921 March 199022 Narinder Nath Vohra21 March 19906 April 199323 K. A. Nambiar6 April 19936 June 199624 T. K. Banerjee5 August 199631 May 199725 Ajit Kumar31 May 19971 January 199926 T. R. Prasad1 January 199920 October 200027 Yogendra Narain20 October 200030 June 200228 Subir Dutta20 June 20024 July 200329 Ajay Prasad14 July 200330 June 200430 Ajai Vikram Singh1 July 200431 July 200531 Shekhar Dutt1 August 200531 July 200732 Vijay Singh1 August 200731 July 200933 Pradeep Kumar1 August 200914 July 201134 Shashi Kant Sharma14 July 201135 R. K. Mathur36 G. Mohan Kumar37 Sanjay Mitra38 Ajay Kumar39 Giridhar Aramane40 Rajesh Kumar SinghIncumbent
See also Cabinet Secretary of India Secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing Home Secretary of India Foreign Secretary of India Finance Secretary of India
References
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