India's Defence Minister approves joint command system

India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the joint command system upgrade on Tuesday.

The first such Joint Order, titled ‘Approval, Promulgation and Numbering of Joint Instructions and Joint Orders’, was issued and it focuses on streamlining procedures and eliminating redundancies across the three Services. Singh has authorized the Chief of Defence Staff and the Secretary, Department of Military Affairs to issue Joint Orders for the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

The new approach replaced the earlier system where individual Services issued their own orders for matters involving more than one forces, often leading to duplication and inefficiencies.