- Sakshi Post
Research and Analysis Wing (RAW): India’s undercover operations agency completes 53 years in service to the nation
Established in 1968 to handle the nation’s international intelligence affairs, RAW came into force after the China-India War in 1962. At present, the intelligence arm operates under the aegis of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Since its inception, RAW is credited with providing intelligence support to various significant operations on foreign soil. Working closely with Indian intelligence organizations RAW works in cooperation with the Intelligence Bureau and other Indian Intelligence Agencies. This delineates RAW’s true analytic capabilities and its overall relevance to the protection of India’s interests.
Genesis of RAW
- Until 1968, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was responsible for India’s internal intelligence, and also handled external intelligence. However, after the 1962 China-India war and Indo-Pakistani war in 1965, India established a separate and distinct external intelligence organization – the Research and Analysis Wing.
- In 1968, then India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi appointed R. N. Kao as the first director of RAW. Started with 250 employees and a budget of $405,600, RAW undertook two major missions:
- – To maintain awareness about the military and political activities in the neighboring countries, primarily China and Pakistan
- – Promote the control of military equipment supplies into Pakistan
- Under the leadership of R. N. Kao (from 1968 to 1977), RAW provided intelligence support, which resulted in India’s successful operations which included the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, the defeat of Pakistan during the Kargil conflict of 1971, the accession of Sikkim in 1975, and the increase of India’s support to Afghanistan.
- With the intelligence agency’s successes, RAW quickly grew in both personnel and financing. By the mid-1970s, as a report, RAW’s budget rose to $6.1 million and its workforce increased to several thousand.
- Furthermore, as per R. N. Kao’s suggestion, the Indian government established the Aviation Research Center (ARC) to provide aerial reconnaissance of neighboring countries. This capability allowed RAW to better prepare for impending conflict by obtaining overhead images of installations and activities along with India’s international borders.
- Many books have been written on R.N. Kao’s life and his style of work.
- Several books have also been written on R. N. Kao’s life and style, including R.N. Kao: Gentleman Spymaster, The Kaoboys of R&AW, Raw-Indian Detective Saga, A Life in Secret, and Escape to nowhere.
The working mechanism of RAW
- The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) collects military, economic, scientific, and political intelligence through covert and overt operations. The agency is also charged with monitoring terrorist elements and smuggling rings that transport weapons and ammunition into India.
- RAW primarily focuses on India’s neighbors. The collected inputs by RAW also help Indian officials, which are further used in national security policy and revise the foreign policy.
Attached are Bodies or Autonomous Bodies
- The Aerial Reconnaissance Centre (ARC) collects high-quality overhead imagery of activities and installations in neighboring countries.
Special Frontier Force
- The inspector general of a paramilitary force of India, the Special Frontier Force reports to the director-general of security for RAW. While the force has functions independent of RAW, it is often fielded to support covert and overt RAW missions.
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The RAW: Understanding India's External Intelligence Agency
- Thread starter Rage
- Start date Sep 29, 2009
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- To monitor political and military developments in adjacent countries, including China and Pakistan, which have a direct or indirect bearing upon India's national security and upon the formulation of its foreign policy; Technical and Technological espionage under the auspices of the National Technical Facilities Organisation (NTFO).
- To make the control and limitation of the supply of military hardware to Pakistan, mostly from European countries, the USA and China, a priority.
- To gather intelligence on leadership, capabilities and organization of various insurgency groups operating in adjacent states that pose a national security or integrity threat, and to thwart these using covert operations, assassinations, sabotage, indirect political coercion and exo-agent and interagent collusion where possible.
- To further geopolitical goals, encourage a strategic balance and evince a deterrence of external collusion with domestic insurgency groups by establishing working relationships with secessionist agencies abroad.
- To provide security for India's nuclear program.
[In continuum].... Controversies: The main controversies which have plagued the R&AW in recent years are over bureaucratization of the system, favoritism in promotions, ego clashes and inter-departmental rivalry. R&AW also suffers from ethnic and representative imbalances in the officer level. In 2006, Indian magazine Outlook reported that although India has a Muslim minority numbering around 160 million, not a single high level muslim officer existed in R&AW. Noted security analyst and former Additional Secretary B.Raman has criticised the agency for its asymmetric growth and has sought to summarize its abilities in the following: "while being strong in its capability for covert action it is weak in its capability for intelligence collection, analysis and assessment. Strong in low and medium-grade intelligence, relatively weak in high-grade intelligence. Strong in technical intelligence, weak in human intelligence. Strong in collation, weak in analysis. Strong in investigation, weak in prevention. Strong in crisis management, weak in crisis prevention." In September 2007, R&AW was involved in a controversy due to a high profile Central Bureau of Investigation Task Force raid at the residence of Major General (retired) V K Singh, a retired Joint Secretary of R&AW who has recently written a book on R&AW where it was alleged that political interference and corruption in the intelligence agency has made it vulnerable to defections. A case under the Official Secrets Act has also been filed against V K Singh. Another controversy erupted for the agency when a senior technical officer was arrested by the CBI on graft charges, on February 4, 2009. The scientist, a Director level employee, worked in the division that granted export licenses to companies dealing in “sensitive” items, including defence-related equipment. He was accused of demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs.1 lakh from a Chennai based manufacturer for obtaining an export license. In June 2004, the spy scandal involving former Joint Secretary and head of R&AW's South East Asia department Rabinder Singh's defection to the United States seriously tarnished the image of the organization as an effective agency. The RAW had already become suspicious about his movements and he was put under physical and telephone surveillance following the mistrust. He was confronted by Counter Intelligence officials on 19 April 2004, Despite all precautions, Rabinder Singh managed to defect with 'sensitive files' he had allegedly removed from R&AW's headquarters in south New Delhi. The embarrassing fiasco and major national security failure was attributed to weak surveillance, shoddy investigation and lack of coordination between the Counter-Intelligence and Security (CIS), the IB and the R&AW. Recently in an affidavit submitted to the court, R&AW deposed that Singh has been traced to and put under surveillance in New Jersey. In 2007, a spy scandal involving a Bangladeshi DGFI agent and known by the name of Diwan Chand Mallik was brought to light when he was known to have known posessed some important documents damaging to national security. A case of forgery was filed at the Lodhi Colony police station against the individual on the basis of a complaint by a senior R&AW official, however he was failed to be taken into custody. In Popular Culture Excessive secrecy and rare declassification of activities have ensured that the RAW has remained out of the public imagination. However, films like Mission Istanbul , Asambhav , Dasavathaaram and Veer-Zaara have either made mention of or fictionally predicated themselves upon the agency. Acknowledgments: http://www.fas.org/irp/world/india/...ysis Wing [RAW] - India Intelligence Agencies India Intelligence Organisation Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] - India Intelligence Agencies Research and Analysis Wing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia RAW: India's External Intelligence Agency - Council on Foreign Relations India, Intelligence and Security ? FREE India, Intelligence and Security information | Encyclopedia.com: Find India, Intelligence and Security research India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) http://www.bt.com.bn/en/analysis/2008/01/10/critical_look_at_indias_intelligence_service .
RAW started with a bang but has over the years become like any other govt organization in India. Just becausebit doesn't havevto report to anyone but the PM and has an accounted funds, it's taken itself for granted. Others like the ISI use such freedom to become a terror, but RAW has gone the other way. Maybe it's recruitment policy has to change. Right now it's mainly recruiting from the police force and we know how the police force is in our country. I think RAW should make spying a career option for those interested. I remember reading the the newspaper as to how the MI6 publishes ads for recruitment.
Global Defence Moderator
Yusufji the RAW has its onw Civil service cader for recruitment called Today, R&AW has its own service cadre, the Research and Analysis Service (RAS) to absorb talent
But the majority is from the police. And issues of being unprofessional and not upto scratch need to be addressed.
this is a problem that has got excabrated with a system of Prement Deputation where by IPS officers are peremently deputated to the RAW
Isn't there a dedicated course like an Indian spook service that draws the best talent from the country andvthey be recruited? Just on the lines of IAS, IPS, IFS. I'm sure there are many out there wanting to be 007s.
thats what the the Research and Analysis Service (RAS) is for
There is a thread on Pakistan's ISI elsewhere, missing is a thread on the main regional power, India. The ISI thread ... This week the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank had a short review article on its blogsite, by the RUSI (UK) based analyst Shashank Joshi; I thought it was interesting. An Indian "lurker" responded that the article was: Quote: ..a very amateurish attempt...(partly as he relied on)..Srinath Raghavan who knew only in 2013 that Indian intelligence have no legal backing . Raghavan is not a historian but only a young journalist... Click to expand...
VPM's Centre for International Studies Seminar on India as an Emerging Major Power: Foreign Policy Thrust Areas January 27 & 28, 2012 INTELLIGENCE AS FOREIGN POLICY TOOL By V.Balachandran, Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GOI Click to expand...
I really think what we have been doing in Af-PAK, for 12 YEARS (!), is as mad as the impossible to conceive analogy I presented. We know and have known how insane this situation has been for years. The monograph does an excellent job of pulling all the open source evidence together. The problem may be that we may never see official documents confirming how bad the situation has been. Computer files may be a lot easier to 'disappear' than paper. The powers that be have a huge incentive to erase official evidence about how their impregnable personal pride, naivete and arrogance has played right into the hands of the grifters in 'Pindi, and how that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds and hundreds of Americans and thousands and thousands of Afghans. Firn: The thing that interests, and enrages, me is our behavior. The feudal elites/Pak Army/ISI are destroying their country for their own short term benefit and nothing can stop them now. Ironically I think, us being such fools has robbed Pakistan of any chance it may have had. If we had stopped their game 10 years ago they may have been discredited and maybe Pakistan would have had a chance. Not now though. The thing with the game they run on us is they run it on us. It can only work on such titanic fools such as the American elites. Nobody else has the proper combination of narcissistic pride and ignorance. It is no accomplishment besting a fool but they won't remember that and will have very great trouble because the guys in their neighborhood are no fools . But like I said, the thing that interests me is our behavior. It is beyond reason. Click to expand...
When i visualize RAW, i visualize a government office full of scattered files,slow moving fans and paan-ka-dhabbhas in corners. That may not be accurate but RAW is incompetent and this is a fact.
chase said: When i visualize RAW, i visualize a government office full of scattered files,slow moving fans and paan-ka-dhabbhas in corners. That may not be accurate but RAW is incompetent and this is a fact. Click to expand...
R&AW is not so much incompetent as it is underfunded. The US devotes $52bn USD per year to its 'intelligence community'; another 30-40bn if you include black budget allocations in the DoD that go to covert military ops and C4ISR research. China devotes $110bn per year, in total, to 'domestic security', which, after excluding domestic police functions, leaves 50-60bn for internal CI and external intelligence-gathering. India doesn't even spend that much on its defence budget in total.
t_co said: R&AW is not so much incompetent as it is underfunded. The US devotes $52bn USD per year to its 'intelligence community'; another 30-40bn if you include black budget allocations in the DoD that go to covert military ops and C4ISR research. China devotes $110bn per year, in total, to 'domestic security', which, after excluding domestic police functions, leaves 50-60bn for internal CI and external intelligence-gathering. India doesn't even spend that much on its defence budget in total. Click to expand...
freethinker777
fake article. nothing like RAW exists.
freethinker777 said: fake article. nothing like RAW exists. Click to expand...
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Secrecy and Democracy: The Role of India's Foreign Intelligence Agency
India’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and its intelligence community at large are direly under examined subjects. Little is known about the history, mandate, structure and budget of the the intelligence wing; and even less has been written analysing its functioning and capacity. This dissertation seeks to deepen our understanding of R&AW by exploring how it was established and how it has evolved over its five decades of existence. It presents an account of India’s virtually non-existent intelligence capabilities after its independence. With a political leadership which had little faith in intelligence and new challenges associated with the formation and establishment of a sovereign state, Indian intelligence faced difficult times in its early days. The paper demonstrates that although R&AW may have grown in terms of staff and budget, it remains woefully stagnant today. Through an enquiry into key events in R&AW’s history, particularly its failures, the dissertation argues that India has rarely engaged in adequate intelligence reviews in the aftermath of crisis. Assessments of intelligence services have hardly ever resulted in direly needed comprehensive and effective reforms. Their piecemeal and ad hoc solutions, such as the creation of additional intelligence agencies, have only resulted in increased problems of overlapping directives, turf wars and lack of coordination. Consequently, the dissertation seeks to promote a debate on intelligence reform through evaluation of areas of Indian intelligence that require holistic and radical revisions. Firstly, it argues that as an organisation operating in a democracy, R&AW must be open to introducing legislative oversight and external supervision that can put in place much needed checks and balances. Granting it legal status through a parliamentary act is essential to clarify the agency’s function in India’s intelligence community. Secondly, it asserts that R&AW must overhaul its recruitment and training mechanisms in order to improve its man force and thereby its capacity. Lastly, the paper contends that R&AW must make an effort to be more transparent so as to improve its impression amongst the public and foreign entities. Therefore, the paper concludes that significant and wide-ranging reforms in aforementioned areas are the first step to an effective intelligence agency as India looks towards expanding its global presence and faces security challenges that hold the potential to derail its economic and social progress.
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