Security

“It is beneficial to have a specialist on the job. As R&AW chief, Alok Joshi was a consumer of intel gathered by the NTRO and when he became its chairman, he knew exactly what is expected of the NTRO by the IB or R&AW,” says Ajit Lal, a former JIC chief.

Most of these officers sit in Sardar Patel Bhawan where NSA Doval also has an office (he has another in the Prime Minister’s Office). Doval is the second former IPS officer to be the NSA after M K Narayanan. An indication of a bigger role for the NSCS came from the last budget when finance minister Arun Jaitley made a budgetary allocated of Rs 333.58 for it, almost 10 fold jump from Rs 33.17 crore provided to it in 2016-17 budget.

India’s national security establishment was re-structured on the recommendation of a task force headed by KC Pant during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Following its recommendations, a three-tier structure was set up which included a National Security Council, headed by Prime Minister, a Strategic Policy Group and a National Security Advisory Board.

The Pm-headed NSC is the apex body and the National Security Advisor works as its secretary. The Strategic Policy Group is headed by the Cabinet Secretary and it has the chiefs of the armed forces, the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing as its members. The group is responsible for policy-making and for follow up action in matters of national security. The advisory board does long term analysis and provides perspectives on issues of national security. bleed more than ₹900 crore from the exchequer by showing spends for fictitious medicines and fodder for cattle.