Lieutenant General N S Raja Subramani will also lead the Department of Military Affairs as secretary in the Ministry of Defence. 6 min read May 11, 2026 12:33 PM IST First published on: May 11, 2026 at 12:33 PM IST Lt Gen N S Raja Subramani (retd) has been appointed as India’s next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and Secretary, Department of Military Affairs (DMA), and he will assume office on May 31. He will be India’s third CDS after the late Gen Bipin Rawat and Gen Anil Chauhan, who assumed office in September 2022 and whose three-year term was extended until the end of May. The post of the CDS was created during Modi 2.0 in December 2019, and the then army chief, General Rawat, was appointed as the first incumbent in January 2020, after he had completed his tenure as chief.…