Indian Armed Forces: Organisation and Role
This domain tests structure - who commands, how the three services divide into commands, and what each service exists to do.
Command and control
- The President of India is the Supreme Commander; real control runs through the Ministry of Defence and the Defence Minister.
- The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), created in 2019, is principal military adviser and heads the Department of Military Affairs - an adviser and coordinator, not a commander of troops.
- The three Chiefs sit on the Chiefs of Staff Committee, whose senior-most member chairs it.
Commands and roles
- Army: 7 commands - Northern (Udhampur), Western (Chandimandir), South-Western (Jaipur), Eastern (Kolkata), Central (Lucknow), Southern (Pune), Army Training Command (Shimla).
- Navy: 3 - Western (Mumbai), Eastern (Visakhapatnam), Southern (Kochi).
- Air Force: 7, including Western (New Delhi), South-Western (Gandhinagar), Central (Prayagraj).
- Roles: the Army holds ground and fights counter-insurgency; the Navy practises sea control and sea denial and mans the nuclear triad (INS Arihant); the IAF wins air superiority and provides strategic lift and ISR.
- Paramilitary under MHA: BSF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB and Assam Rifles; CISF guards vital installations.
Worked example
"A unit is stationed at Jaipur. Which Army command?" Reasoning: match the city against the headquarters list - Jaipur is HQ South-Western Command, so the unit belongs to South-Western Command. Geography alone is a guess; the headquarters list is the answer.
Traps
- Saying the CDS "commands the Army" - the service chiefs do.
- Placing Assam Rifles under the Army; it is under MHA, operationally with the Army.
- Confusing the Navy's Southern Command (training-oriented, Kochi) with a fighting command.