The Defence Planning Committee (DPC), a new permanent mechanism created last month by the government, held its first meeting on Thursday.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval chaired the meeting in the morning, which was attended by the three military chiefs, and defence, foreign and expenditure secretaries.

Sources said the meeting lasted for about two hours, during which the committee discussed the framework for the work ahead.

According to the notification issued last week, the DPC, headed by the NSA, will prepare a draft national security strategy, develop a capability development plan, work on defence diplomacy issues and improving defence manufacturing in India. The Chief of Integrated Staff in the MoD will be the member secretary of DPC, and his headquarters will be the secretariat for the committee. The DPC will submit its reports to the Defence Minister.

Four sub-committees will be created under the DPC: one to look at policy and strategy, the second to work on plans and capability development; the third on defence diplomacy and the fourth on defence manufacturing ecosystem.