The new notification states that the Strategic Policy Group will be chaired by NSA Ajit Doval.

Highlights Government has decided to revive the Strategic Policy Group or SPG

SPG will assist National Security Council in undertaking defence review

The move has made Ajit Doval most powerful bureaucrat in India

Four-and-a-half years into its term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has decided to revive the Strategic Policy Group to assist the National Security Council and help with a long-term strategic defence review. The move makes National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval the most powerful bureaucrat in India since the post was created in 1998.

The policy group will be the main mechanism for inter-ministerial coordination and integration of inputs in forming national security policies, a senior Home Ministry official told NDTV.

Earlier, the group waschaired by the Cabinet Secretary, the most senior bureaucrat in the government.

Now the group will be headed by Ajit Doval, the country's top national security officer, and the Cabinet Secretary will report to him.

What makes the policy group's chairman more powerful is the inclusion of the NITI Aayog or plan panel.

Members include the NITI Aayog vice chairman, the cabinet secretary, the three military chiefs, the Reserve Bank of India governor, the foreign secretary, home secretary, finance secretary and the defence secretary.

The secretary of the Department of Defence Production and Supplies, the scientific adviser to the defence minister and the secretary, cabinet secretariat will also be on the panel. So will top officers of the departments of revenue, atomic energy, space and the Intelligence Bureau.

Other ministries and departments will