the British troops in India, the CCS could no longer cope-up with the situation. Therefore, on 1 July 1942, the Government of India made use of the specific provision in Services (India) under the Directorate of Wholesale Trade and Indian Canteen Corps to handle the retail trade in operational areas. Canteen suppliers poured in from abroad and the organization functioned extremely well during the War. By 31 March 1946, it was not only able to pay back to the government the assignments of funds made available to it but could also function on its own trading capital. However, with the end of the war and homeward movement of the British troops, the import facilities dwindled and the turnover of the organization shrank. With the pulling out of troops from the operational areas, the Indian Canteen Corps was disbanded and the staff retrenched. This was closely followed by the independence and partition of the country, and the wartime organization gave birth to two Canteen Stores Departments, i.e., CSD (India) and CSD (Pakistan). The Pakistani CSD would later bifurcate further to form CSD (Bangladesh), after the independence of Bangladesh. The retail trade, however, reverted to the contractors. A board of Liquidation was formed to oversee the liquidation of assets of the war-time organization which ceased to function from 31 December 1947. The Canteen Stores Department, the present organization, thus took birth on 1 January 1948 with a working capital of assigned to it from assets of its predecessor wartime organization. The Government of India had granted the organization a life of three years on experimental basis. The situation was reviewed in 1950 and the department was accepted as a government undertaking on a permanent basis. See also Ministry of Defence (India) References External links Canteen Stores Department Canteen Manager Recruitment India Military of India Department stores of India Indian companies established in 1948 Retail companies established in 1948 Military life Military pay and benefits Government-owned companies of India