new delhi over four decades after it was first mooted the indian national defence university indu is now finally set to take concrete shape pm manmohan singh will next month lay the foundation stone for indu which is slated to come up on 205 acres at binola near gurgaon in haryana with an initial cost of rs 395 crore the decks for indu which will work towards injecting some muchneeded strategic culture in governance were cleared at a highlevel meeting chaired by defence minister a k antony on friday interestingly indu will be headed by a threestar general first from the army and then from the iaf and navy in turns as per the proposal mooted by the chiefs of staff committee led by air chief marshal n a k browne indu will be a fullyautonomous institution with the mandate to provide knowledgebased higher education for management of defence keeping its participants abreast of emerging security challenges through scholarly research and training said an official though the president of the varsity will be from the armed forces the vicepresident will be a civilian while 66 of students would be from the military the rest will be drawn from other government agencies police and the civilian arena he added the longawaited indu will be instituted by an act of parliament with the president of india as the visitor and defence minister as the chancellor it will bring together existing institutes like the national defence college delhi college of defence management secunderabad defence services staff college wellington and national defence academy khadakwasla which are currently affiliated to different universities under its umbrella indu will undertake longterm defence and strategic studies create synergy between academicians and government functionaries and educate national security leaders on all aspects of national strategy said officials at a later stage indu is also likely to include new institutes like the national institute of strategic studies college of national security policy and institute for advanced technology studies apart from a war gaming and simulation centre india has long lacked a robust strategic thinking culture both within the military as well as outside it countries like us china and several others have institutions like indu to ensure crosspollination of ideas and strategic thinking between academia and government in washington for instance its quite commonplace to find strategists straddling both the worlds with equal ease the 2001 gom report on reforming the national security system in the aftermath of the 1999 kargil conflict had strongly recommended indus creation to usher in synergy between the academic world and the executive at present university research on defence and strategic issues is neither structured effectively nor does it have any policy orientation