---
title: "Naresh Chandra Task Force: National Security Reform"
description: "The Naresh Chandra Task Force, formed in 2011, proposed key reforms in India's national security management, influencing UPSC exam topics."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/naresh-chandra-task-force"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- The Naresh Chandra Task Force was a 14-member committee constituted by India's government in 2011 to review national security management and recommend reforms across defence, intelligence, and civil-military coordinat…
- How did the Naresh Chandra Task Force differ from the Kargil Review Committee and the 2001 Group of Ministers?
- Did the Task Force recommend a Chief of Defence Staff?
- Why is the Task Force report not publicly available?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

The Naresh Chandra Task Force was a 14-member committee constituted by India's government in 2011 to review national security management and recommend reforms across defence, intelligence, and civil-military coordination.

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## Timeline

1. 15 August 2019

   The decisive step came on , when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced from the Red Fort the creation of a Chief of Defence Staff.

2. 1 January 2020

   General Bipin Rawat assumed the post of India's first CDS on , simultaneously heading the newly created Department of Military Affairs within the Ministry of…

## Positions at a glance

### Supporters

The Naresh Chandra Task Force on National Security was constituted in May–June 2011 by the United Progressive Alliance government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with the National Security Council Secretariat providing administrative support. It was the first comprehensive, holistic re-examination of India's national security apparatus since the Group of Ministers (GoM) report of 2001, which had itself followed the Kargil Review Committee report of 1999 chaired by K. Subrahmanyam. Chaired by Naresh Chandra, a retired Indian Administrative Service officer who had served as Cabinet Secretary and as India's Ambassador to the United States, the body comprised fourteen members drawn from the armed forces, intelligence agencies, the scientific establishment, the diplomatic corps, and academia. Its mandate was advisory rather than statutory: it was a task force established by executive decision, not a commission of inquiry constituted under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, and its recommendations carried no binding force.

### Opponents

The principal controversy surrounding the Task Force concerns transparency and follow-through. Because the report was classified, scholars and parliamentarians could not assess which of its ninety-odd recommendations were accepted, deferred, or rejected, and the government provided no consolidated public action-taken report. Critics argued that this opacity replicated the institutional inertia the Task Force was meant to remedy, and that the absence of a published record weakened accountability for security-sector reform. The eventual creation of the CDS in 2019–2020 vindicated the broad thrust of the reform agenda, yet the gap between recommendation and implementation—nearly a decade—underscored the political difficulty of restructuring civil-military relations in India.

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In May 2012, the Naresh Chandra Task Force submitted its classified report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office, recommending a permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee rather than a full Chief of Defence Staff.

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