Minister of Defence (India) the second woman since Indira Gandhi to hold this major post. Minister of Defence (India) The Minister of Defence is the head of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. They are often assisted by a Minister of State for Defence and less-commonly, the lower-ranked Deputy Minister of Defence. The defence minister additionally serves as President of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, and as Chancellor of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology and of the National Defence University. The first defence minister of independent India was Baldev Singh, who served in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet
Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India a retired 1972 batch Gujarat cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet to serve as newly-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi's additional principal secretary. The status of an additional principal secretary—akin to the principal secretary—is generally considered equivalent to the Cabinet Secretary, the Government of India's topmost civil servant. Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India The Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India (PS to the PM; IAST: ) is the senior-most bureaucrat in, and the administrative head of, the Prime Minister's Office. The officeholder is generally a civil servant,