CDS Gen Anil Chauhan chairs apex tri-services conference on financial synergy, cohesion in Armed Forces

New Delhi [India], August 5 (ANI): Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan chaired the apex level tri-services financial conference for Armed Forces at Manekshaw Centre in Delhi on Monday.

The conference was aimed to enhance cohesion and synergy in the financial issues of the Armed Forces and saw the participation of senior officials from the Ministry of Defence (MoD), MoD (Finance), Controller General of Defence Accounts, Integrated Financial Advisers of Services, Government e-Marketplace, Service Headquarters, and Indian Coast Guard Headquarters.

Speaking to ANI after the conference, Air Vice Marshal, Anil Sabharwal said, “Today’s conference topic was to ‘To Enhance Financial Cohesion and Synergy’. All the armed forces should have cutting-edge equipment to beat the challenges. But, to have all this cutting-edge equipment is very expensive, we have to depend on foreign expenses.”

“The need is to self-reliant and all these things require a lot of money. The money is tax-payers money and the government, also the armed forces is very considerate about where to use that. If we understand all the financial nuances very well, we will be able to use it in the right way,” he added.

Vice Chief of the Naval Staff, Krishna Swaminathan said that the armed forces need to develop capabilities to face all those challenges. He further said that these capabilities come at a huge cost that must be balanced with other expenditures.

“Geopolitically, geoeconomically and technologically the entire world is in a state of transition – because of that the security challenges that the nation faces today, and will continue to face in the future, are going to be a lot more complex and complicated,” Krishna Swaminathan said while speaking to ANI.

He further said that a conference of this kind brings the service headquarters and defence finance people together to enhance mutual understanding, understand each other concerns, talk to each other about the procedure followed and share best practices.

“It brings better synergy, better coordination, better understanding so that we all can bring better capabilities for the nation,” he added.

Major General Sandeep Narang said, “We don’t have any other option except being self-reliant if we want to move forward as a nation. In such conferences, all the services share their ideas, we have financial advisors to see how we can move forward and how we can get the maximum benefit out of the budget that is allocated to us.”

As per a Defence Ministry release, the conference is being coordinated by HQ Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) to enhance cooperation and achieve greater synergy on financial issues aligned with the objectives set for the ongoing drive on integration and jointness in the Armed Forces.

Discussions covered various aspects of understanding the perspectives of different stakeholders in defence finance and finding solutions to challenges faced in defence procurement. The Financial Advisor (Defence Services) and Director General (Acquisitions) also gave specific talks on the roles and actions undertaken by their organizations in expeditious procurement.

This apex-level conference brought all stakeholders, including MoD, MoD (Finance), HQ IDS, Service Headquarters, Coast Guard, and CGDA, onto one platform.