The United Service Institution of India was founded in 1870 by a soldier scholar, Colonel (later Major General) Sir Charles MacGregor. The story of its growth is the story of the growth of the Indian Armed Forces. It was founded for ‘furtherance of interest and knowledge in the art, science and literature of the Defence Services.’
The preparatory work for the issues to be discussed during the SCO summit was conducted through this study. India as Chair of the SCO in a meeting between heads of international defence cooperation, had proposed studying ‘joint measures to combat international terrorism’. The broad areas of cooperation included climate change, environment-related areas, armed forces and HADR, and interaction of defence think tanks. The scope of the study included all the above along with examining activities in SCO defence cooperation conducted so far, as also proposing specific activities in defence cooperation for the next five years.