INDU draft bill goes online

The US has it, China has it and even Pakistan. About 49 years after the idea of a Parliament-approved university and an integrated thinktank to bring together professional soldiers and security officials with academicians and intellectuals on the same convergent platform was mooted, the idea is again gaining traction.

On Monday, the defence ministry posted a draft of Indian National Defence University (INDU) bill online seeking “opinions and inputs”. According to informed sources, it was on PMO’s direction that the ministry of defence has taken step to seek public opinion before seeking parliamentary approval for the institute-cum-university.

INDU Bill, 2015 proposes that the new institution will integrate under it the National Defence College, National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and College of Defence Management “without diluting their powers or autonomy for award of degrees and diplomas”.

Initially, four new institutions-School of National Security Studies, School of Defence Technology, School of Defence Management and Centre for Distance and Open Learning-are proposed to be set up as INDU’s constituents at the main campus.

While the Defence Minister will be the proposed university’s Chancellor, the Chairman of chiefs of staff committee will be the pro-chancellor.The draft bill aims to establish a world class fully autonomous institution of national importance under MoD which will “develop and propagate higher education in national security studies, defence management and defence technology and promote policy- oriented research on all aspects relating to national security, both internal and external”.

The idea is to reach out to scholars and an audience beyond officialdom and serve as a think tank contributing to policy formulation and debates on security and strategy. The institute will inculcate and promote coordination and interaction not just between the three armed services but also “between other agencies of the government, the civil bureaucracy, paramilitary forces, Central Armed Police Forces, intelligence services, diplomats, academicians, strategic planners, university students and officers from friendly foreign countries”.

In 2013, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation stone for INDU campus at a 200-acre plot at Binola, Gurgaon, at a cost of Rs 395 crore.