Lt Gen. Mukesh Sabharwal (retd)

According to a news report in the Times of India dated March 25, the Indian National Defence University (INDU) will start its first academic session from 2015-16. This is indeed a welcome development.

The idea to have an institution to synthesise all concepts and views on security and strategy germinated after the wars in 1962 and 1965, and was reinforced in 1980 by the Sethna Committee. The Vajpayee government in 1999 set up the Kargil Review Committee that recommended the establishment of a National Defence University.

Having studied the US and Chinese models, the University was conceived as a creative institution that would galvanise the study, teaching and practice of national security and strategic thinking in India. The idea was to establish an interface between the political leadership, the civil and defence services leadership, and experts with domain knowledge to address the Indian security management system.

It took a decade before t