Whenever it’s the matter of security of a country, the security is discussed in 2 aspects
- External Security – It refers to security against outside elements of a country or we can say the aggression of foreign countries.
- Internal Security – It refers to security against the threats which lie within the boundaries of the country. Upholding the law & order and maintain internal peace in the Nation.
There are broadly 2 types of forces which cover both of these aspects of security,
- Armed Forces – Forces which have a proper uniform and the personnel are highly trained physically in combat and in arms & ammunation.
- Intelligence and Investigation Agencies – these forces generally dosn’t have any special uniform. The tasks of these forces include collection of various data, decode the encrypted data and perform investigation.
This article will broadly cover the intelligence and investigation agencies of India, the contents of the article would be as follows
- IB
- RAW
- CBI
- NIA
- NTRO
- DIA
- ED
- DRI
- NCB
- FIU
IB(Intelligence Bureau): It is India’s domestic internal security and counter-intelligence agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
Counter-intelligence here means aiming at protecting IB’s intelligence programs from other foreign intelligence services.
It was founded 135 years ago, in 1887 as Central Special Branch, and is reputed to be the oldest such organization in the world. It came to be called Indian Political Intelligence (IPI) in 1921. At that time it was used by Britishers to keep surveillance on the plans and actions of Indian freedom fighters.
After Indian independence in 1947, IPI was renamed as the Intelligence Bureau under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
IB has the responsibility to garner intelligence from within India and also execute counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism tasks. The operations conducted by the IB are highly classified.
The total strength of the employees working in IB is around 15,000 to 20,000. The Bureau comprises employees from law enforcement agencies, mostly from the Indian Police Service(IPS) or the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and the military but the head of IB (Director of IB) is always an IPS officer, which is also the highest possible post of an IPS officer.
RAW(Research and Analysis Wing): It is the foreign intelligence agency of India which comes directly under the Prime Minister of India. It was raised in 1968 with the concept of having a separate foreign intelligence agency whose work till then, was done by the IB(Intelligence Bureau) itself.
RAW has 2 child agencies
- ETS – Electronics and Technical Services
- ARC – Aviation Research Centre
RAW’s primary function is gathering foreign intelligence, Counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, advising Indian policymakers, and advancing India’s foreign strategic interests.
RAW’s work is very risky that’s why all its information about the employees and the organization is kept highly classified. That is the reason, you would hardly find any information about RAW on the Internet.
CBI(Central Bureau of Investigation): It traces its origin to the Special Police Establishment (SPE) which was set up in 1941 by the Government of India. The functions of the SPE then were to investigate cases of bribery and corruption in transactions with the War & Supply department of India during World War II.
Later in 1963, a resolution was passed by the Home Ministry renaming DSPE (Delhi Special Police Establishment) as CBI(Central Bureau of Investigation).
CBI used to work under the Ministry of home affairs, but currently, it comes under the Department of Personnel and Training.
CBI is the premier investigation agency of India which is always headed by an IPS officer and it comprises around five to seven thousand employees.
Originally CBI was set up to investigate bribery and governmental corruption. But later, it received expanded jurisdiction to investigate breaches of central laws enforceable by the Government of India, multi-state organized crime, multi-agency, or international cases. The agency has been known to investigate several economic crimes, special crimes, cases of corruption, and other cases.
NIA(National Investigation Agency): It is India’s counter-terrorism task force which works under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Its head or Director is always an IPS officer and the agency comprises around six to seven hundred employees.
The Agency came into existence with the enactment of the National Investigation Agency Act 2008 by the Parliament of India on 31 December 2008, which was passed after the deadly 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. the government of India realized the need for a specific body to deal with terror-related activities in India, thereby establishing the NIA.
The agency is empowered to deal with terror-related crimes across states without special permission from the states.
NIA’s Headquartered is in New Delhi with branches in Jammu, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Raipur, Kochi, where It maintains the NIA Most Wanted list.
NTRO(National Technical Research Organization): It is India’s technical intelligence agency that works under National Security Advisor in PMO (Prime Minister Office), India.
It was set up in 2004, and It has similar “norms of conduct” as the IB and the RAW. It is also a secret organization that’s why most of its information is also classified.
The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), originally known as the National Technical Facilities Organisation (NTFO), is a highly specialized technical intelligence gathering agency. The agency specializes in multiple disciplines, which include remote sensing, data gathering and processing, cyber security, geospatial information gathering, cryptology, strategic hardware and software development, and strategic monitoring.
NTRO operates from TES (Technology Experiment Satellite), Cartosat-2A, EMISAT, and Cartosat-2B besides two Radar Imaging Satellites namely RITSAT-1 & RITSAT-2.
It also operates India’s ocean surveillance ship named “INS Dhruv”, with the Indian Navy.
DIA(Defence Intelligence Agency): It is a separate intelligence agency of the Indian Armed forces which comes under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. It was created in March 2002.
DIA is the nodal agency for all defense-related intelligence, thus distinguishing it from the other Indian intelligence internal and external agencies. DIA also controls the Indian Armed Forces technical intelligence assets like
- Directorate of Signals Intelligence
- DIPAC- Defence Image Processing and Analysis Centre
Apart from DIA, all the three forces of the Indian Armed Forces have their separate intelligence agency
ARMY having Directorate of Military Intelligence,
NAVY has Directorate of Naval Intelligence, and
AIRFORCE has ki Directorate of Air intelligence.
all the agencies we discussed till now in the article were related to the safety and security of India. Apart from these, there are some Law enforcement agencies
ED(Directorate of Enforcement): It is India’s law enforcement and economic intelligence agency, that directly comes under the Department of Revenue of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It investigates economic crimes in India.
ED was formed on 1 May 1956, currently comprising around 2000 employees including some officers from IRS, IPS, and IAS.
ED’s headquarters is in New Delhi, along with regional offices in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Chandigarh. Further, it has also zonal offices in major cities.
ED has the power to impose a fine of the amount 3 times the amount of scam or fraud, done by an organization or an individual. Besides it also has the authority to seize the property of the fraudster.
DRI(Directorate of Revenue Intelligence): It is India’s apex anti-smuggling intelligence agency which came into existence on the 4th of December 1957. DRI functions under CBIC(Central Board of Indirect Taxes) and is headed by an IRS officer as Pr Director General of DRI.
The Agency works to secure India’s national and economic security by preventing the outright smuggling of contraband such as gold, firearms, narcotics, fake Indian currency notes, antiques, wildlife, and environmental products. Moreover, it also works to prevent the proliferation of black money, trade-based money laundering, and commercial fraud.
NCB(Narcotics Control Bureau): It is India’s central drug law enforcement and intelligence agency that works under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. It was established on the 17th of March 1986. NCB is headed by an IPS officer as Director-General and It comprises approximately 1000 employees. It has the responsibility of investigating the matter related to drug trafficking and preventing smuggling on the national level.
FIU(Financial Intelligence Unit): It comes directly under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It has the responsibility of collecting financial intelligence about economic offenses and reporting it to EIC(Economic Intelligence Council) which is headed by the Finance Minister of India.
FIU was set up on the 18th of November 2004 and has a team of around 70-80 officers drawn from CBDT, CBIC, RBI, and SEBI, etc on deputation.
You may refer to this video if you want the explanation in Hindi
