The government has appointed Lt Gen. NS Raja Subramani, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM (retd) as the chief of defence staff. Lt Gen. Subramani will also function as the secretary to government of India, department of military affairs, with effect from the date of assumption of charge and until further orders. The present chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM will complete his tenure on 30 May 2026.

Lt Gen. Subramani has been the military adviser, national security council secretariat since 1 September 2025. Prior to that, he was the vice chief of the army staff (1 July 2024-31 July 2025) and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Central Command (March 2023-June 2024).

The General Officer is a graduate of the National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy. He was commissioned into the 8th Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles on 14 December 1985. He is an alumnus of Joint Services Command Staff College, Bracknell (UK), and National Defence College, New Delhi. He holds a Master of Arts Degree from King’s College London and an M Phil in defence studies from Madras University.

In a career spanning over 40 years, Lt Gen. Subramani has served across a wide spectrum of conflict and terrain profiles and tenanted a host of command, staff and instructional appointments. He commanded 16 Garhwal Rifles in counter-insurgency in Assam as part of Operation Rhino, 168 infantry brigade in Jammu & Kashmir and 17 mountain division in the central sector during a challenging operational environment. He also has the distinction of having commanded 2 Corps, the premier strike Corps of the Indian Army on the western front.

The General Officer’s staff and instructional assignments include divisional officer at National Defence Academy, brigade major of a mountain brigade, defence attache in Kazakhstan, assistant military secretary in the Military Secretary’s Branch, colonel general staff (operations) at headquarters Eastern Command, deputy commander of a Rashtriya Rifles Sector in Jammu & Kashmir, deputy director general of military intelligence in the Integrated Headquarters of ministry of defence (army), Brigadier general staff (operations) in the Eastern Command, chief instructor (army) at Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and chief of staff, headquarters Northern Command.