Research and Analysis Wing [RAW]

The Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] is India's foreign intelligence agency. RAW has become an effective instrument of Indian national power, and has assumed a significant role in carrying out India's domestic and foreign policies. RAW has engaged in espionage against Pakistan and other neighboring countries. It has enjoyed the backing of successive Indian governments in these efforts. Working directly under the Prime Minister, the structure and operations of the Research & Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament.
Founded in 1968, RAW focused largely on Pakistan. Its formation was initially motivated by reports of Pakistan supplying weapons to Sikh militants, and providing shelter and training to guerrillas in Pakistan.
Numerous missions were assigned to RAW upon its creation. These included monitoring political and military developments in neighboring countries that affects Indian national security. Consequently, considerable attention is paid by RAW to Pakistan and China, countries that are traditional rivals of India.
RAW has evolved from its origins as a part of the Intelligence Bureau to develop into India's predominant intelligence organization. In 1968, RAW had 250 agents and a budget of Rs. 2 crore. This has expanded to a 2000 total of an estimated eight to ten thousand agents and a budget that experts place at Rs. 1500 crore, alternately estimated at $145 million.
Pakistan has accused the Research and Analysis Wing of sponsoring sabotage in Punjab, where RAW is alleged to have supported the Seraiki movement, providing financial support to promote its activities in Pakistan and organizing an International Seraiki Conference in Delhi in November-December 1993. RAW has an extensive network of agents and anti-government elements within Pakistan, including dissident elements from various sectarian and ethnic groups of Sindh and Punjab. Published reports in Pakistan allege that as many as 35,000 RAW agents entered Pakistan between 1983-93, with 12,000 working in Sindh, 10,000 in Punjab, 8,000 in North West Frontier Province and 5000 in Balochistan.
RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh, supporting both secular forces and the area's Hindu minority. The involvement of RAW in East Pakistan is said to date from the 1960s, when RAW supported Mujibur Rahman, leading up to his general election victory in 1970. RAW also provided training and arms to the Bangladeshi freedom fighters known as Mukti Bahini. RAW's aid was instrumental in Bangladesh's gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971.
During the course of its investigation the Jain Commission received testimony on the official Indian support to the various Sri Lankan Tamil armed groups in Tamil Nadu. From 1981, RAW and the Intelligence Bureau established a network of as many as 30 training bases for these groups in India. Centers were also established at the high-security military installation of Chakrata, near Dehra Dun, and in the Ramakrishna Puram area of New Delhi. This clandestine support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), some of whom were on the payroll of RAW, was later suspended. Starting in late 1986 the Research and Analysis Wing focused surveillance on the LTTE which was expanding ties with Tamil Nadu separatist groups. Rajiv Gandhi sought to establish good relations with the LTTE, even after the Indian Peace Keeping Force [IPKF] experience in Sri Lanka. But the Indian intelligence community failed to accurately assess the character of the LTTE and its orientation India and its political leaders. The LTTE assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was apparently motivated by fears of a possible re-induction of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka and a crackdown on the LTTE network in Tamil Nadu.
RAW was heavily criticized in 1999, following the Pakistani incursions at Kargil. Critics accused RAW of failing to provide intelligence that could have prevented the ensuing ten-week conflict that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of full-scale war. While the army has been critical of the lack of information they received, RAW has pointed the finger at the politicians, claiming they had provided all the necessary information. Most Indian officials believe that in order to prevent another such occurrence, communication needs to be increased between the intelligence agencies, which would require structural reform.
Most recently, RAW has gained attention for providing the US with intelligence on Al-Qaeda and Taliban targets for the war on terrorism in Afghanistan. Maps and photographs of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with other evidence implicating Osama bin Laden in terrorist attacks, were given to US intelligence officials.
The objectives of RAW include:

To monitor the political and military developments in adjoining countries, which have direct bearing on India's national security and in the formulation of its foreign policy. To seek the control and limitation of the supply of military hardware to Pakistan, mostly from European countries, the USA and China.

The chief of the RAW is designated Secretary (Research) in the Cabinet Secretariat, which is part of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Most of the position's occupants have been experts on either Pakistan or China. The head of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), the external intelligence agency, enjoys greater autonomy of functioning than their counterparts in the UK and US and has the same privileged direct access to the Prime Minister as their UK counterparts. The control of the Cabinet Secretary over the RAW is limited to administrative and financial matters, with very little say in operational and policy matters. They also have the benefit of training in either US or the UK, and more recently in Israel. The Secretary (R) reports on an administrative basis to the Cabinet Secretary, who reports to the Prime Minister (PM). However, on a daily basis the Secretary (R) reports to the National Security Advisor. Reporting to the Secretary (R) are: Two Special Secretaries and one Special Director of the ARC, the Aviation Research Centre; Four Additional Secretaries, responsible for different geographical regions; A large number (above 40) Joint Secretaries, who are the functional heads of various desks. The structure of the RAW is a matter of speculation, but brief overviews of the same are present in the public domain. Attached to the HQ of RAW at Lodhi Road, New Delhi are different regional headquarters, which have direct links to overseas stations and are headed by a controlling officer who keeps records of different projects assigned to field officers who are posted abroad. Intelligence is usually collected from a variety of sources by field officers and deputy field officers; it is either pre-processed (vetted) by a senior field officer or by a desk officer. The desk officer then passes the information to the Joint Secretary and then on to the Additional Secretary and from there it is disseminated to the concerned end user. The Director RAW is a member of the JIC Steering Committee and is authorized to brief the Prime Minister should the need arise. Some officers of the RAW are members of a specialized service, the Research and Analysis Service (RAS), but several officers also serve on deputation from other services. The RAW has sub-organizations like the Aviation Research Center (ARC), the Radio Research Center (RRC) or the Electronics and Technical Service (ETS), which have considerable capacity for technical intelligence gathering. Another important branch under the operational control of the RAW is the Directorate General of Security (DGS). This agency has oversight over organizations like the Special Frontier Force (SFF), the Special Services Bureau (SSB) etc... Liaison with the military is maintained through the Military Intelligence Advisory Group and the Military Advisor to the Director RAW. Though the RAW is primarily intended for collecting intelligence beyond India's national borders, it has over time come to have a strong presence in all fields of intelligence gathering. The RAW was brought into internal security issues during the Sikkim situation, it played a role in the events of the emergency of 1977-79, it was asked to operate in Punjab to counter-balance the presence of the ISI (and so also in Kashmir), and the RAW has provided the security for the India's nuclear program. Right from its formation in 18 September, 1968, R N Kao, the founding father of RAW, picked up the best men from within government and from outside for RAW. A combination of military, academicians, bureaucrats and policemen was a fine start for RAW which modelled itself on the lines of CIA.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) (Hindi: केंद्रीय अन्वेषण ब्यूरो 'Kendriya Janch Bureau'), is India's premier investigating agency, responsible for a wide variety of criminal and national security matters. It was established on 1 April 1963 and evolved from the Special Police Establishment founded in 1941. The Central Bureau of Investigation is controlled by the Department of Personnel and Training in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension of the Union Government usually headed by a Union Minister who reports directly to the Prime Minister. While analogous in structure to the FBI, the CBI's powers and function are severely limited to specific crimes based on Acts (mainly the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946). The CBI is the official Interpol unit for India.The current director of CBI is Ashwani Kumar (since August 2, 2008).   The Central Bureau of Investigation Academy is located at Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh since 1996. It is a training centre that caters to the training needs of all ranks of Central Bureau of Investigation. Training facilities for certain specialized courses are also made available to the officials of the Central Police Organisations (CPO), State Police, Vigilance organizations of public sector undertakings, banks and government departments and Indian Armed Forces. The Department of Personnel and Training in the Ministry of Personnel controls the Central Bureau of Investigation. A Minister of State who reports directly to the Prime Minister heads the Public Grievances and Pension of the Union Government. While equivalent in structure to the FBI, the Central Bureau of Investigation `s powers and function are strictly limited to specific crimes based on Acts, primarily in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act of 1946. The Central Bureau of Investigation is the official Interpol unit for India. The Special Police Establishment that was set up in 1941 by the Government of India founded the Central Bureau of Investigation. The functions of the SPE then were to examine cases of enticement and corruption in dealings with the War and Supply Department Of India during World War II. Superintendent of the SPE was responsible to control the War Department, even after the end of the War. Eventually, the need for a Central Government agency to investigate cases of bribery and corruption by Central Government employees was urgently felt. The Delhi Special Police Establishment Act was therefore implemented in 1946. The jurisdiction of the SPE extended to all the Union Territories and had the access to extend also to the States with the consent of the State Government concerned. DP Kohli was the founder Director of CBI who held office from 1 April 1963 to 31 May 1968. Formerly, he was Inspector-General of Police of the Special Police Establishment from 1955 to 1963. Later, Kohli was awarded `Padma Bhushan` in 1967 for his distinguished services. Kohli designed the Special Police Establishment into the national investigative agency, nurtured the organization during his long stint as Inspector General and as Director, laid the solid foundation of Central Bureau of Investigation. The Central Bureau of Investigation has adequate resources to deal with complicated cases and takes up investigation of more cases of conventional crime such as murder, kidnapping, terrorism and others. Apart from this, the Supreme Court and even the various High Courts of the country often entrust cases for investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation on petitions filed by distressed parties. In 1987 two investigation divisions in the Central Bureau of Investigation, namely, Anti-Corruption Division and Special Crimes Division was instituted. The latter one deals with the cases of conventional crime, besides economic offences. The Central Bureau of Investigation is a central subject under the Constitution of India and it reports to the Indian Government. The Central Bureau of Investigation plays a major role in preservation of values in public life and in ensures the health of the national economy. Central Bureau of Investigation generates a major impact on the political and economic life of the nation. The CBI handles the following broad categories of criminal cases: Cases of corruption and fraud committed by public servants of all Central Public Sector Undertakings, Central Govt. Departments and Central Financial Institutions. Economic crimes, financial frauds, bank frauds, Import Export and Foreign Exchange violations, large-scale smuggling of narcotics, cultural property, antiques, and smuggling of other contraband items. Special Crimes, such as cases of bomb blasts, terrorism, kidnapping for ransom sensational homicides and crimes committed by the mafia or the underworld. A Director controls the Central Bureau of Investigation. The other important ranks in the Central Bureau of Investigation are Special Director, Joint Director, Additional Director, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Senior Superintendent of Police, Superintendent of Police, Dy. Superintendent of Police, Additional Superintendent of Police, Inspector, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Sub-Inspector, Head Constable and Constable. The legal powers of investigation of Central Bureau of Investigation are obtained from the DSPE Act 1946. This Act confers simultaneous and coextensive powers, duties, rights and liabilities on the members of Delhi Special Police Establishment (CBI) with Police Officers of the Union Territories. However, the Central Bureau of Investigation cases do have a limitation. The CBI officials cannot take up cases, which are essentially against Central Govt. employees or concerning affairs of the Central Govt. and the employees of the Central Public Sector; cases in which the financial interests of the Central Government are involved and the cases related to the breaches of Central Laws.    Structure of CBI Further information: CBI Organizational Chart The CBI is headed by a Director. Director is selected based on the procedure laid down by CVC Act 2003 and has a tenure of 2 years. The other important ranks in the CBI are Special Director, Additional Director, Joint Director, Deputy Inspector General of Police,Sr. Superintendent of Police, Superintendent of Police, Additional Superintendent of Police, Dy. Superintendent of Police, Inspector, Sub-Inspector, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Head Constable and Constable.[1] According to annual reports Staff of CBI is usually divided between Ministerial staff, Ex-cadre posts which are usually of technical nature, Executive Staff and EDP Staff. Hindi Bhasha staff belongs to the Deptt of official languages. Ministerial Staff includes LDC, UDC, Crime Assistants etc. Executive Staff includes Constables, ASI, Sub-Inspectors, Inspectors etc. EDP Staff includes Data Entry Operators, Data Processing Assistants, Assistant Programmers, Programmers and SSA. Jurisdiction Powers, privileges and liabilities The legal powers of investigation of CBI are derived from the DSPE Act 1946. This Act confers concurrent and coextensive powers, duties, privileges and liabilities on the members of Delhi Special Police Establishment (CBI) with Police Officers of the Union Territories. The Central Government may extend to any area, besides Union Territories, the powers and jurisdiction of members of the CBI for investigation subject to the consent of the Government of the concerned State. While exercising such powers, members of the CBI of or above the rank of Sub Inspector shall be deemed to be officers incharge of Police Stations of respective jurisdictions. The CBI can investigate only such of the offences as are notified by the Central Government under the DSPE Act. Jurisdiction of CBI vis-a-vis State Police Law and Order is a State subject and the basic jurisdiction to investigate crime lies with State Police. Besides, due to limited resources, CBI would not be able to investigate crimes of all kind. CBI may investigate: Cases which are essentially against Central Govt. employees or concerning affairs of the Central Govt. and the employees of the Central Public Sector Undertakings and Public Sector Banks. Cases in which the financial interests of the Central Government are involved. Cases relating to the breaches of Central Laws with the enforcement of which the Government of India is mainly concerned. Big cases of fraud, cheating, embezzlement and the like relating to companies in which large funds are involved and similar other cases when committed by organised gangs or professional criminals having ramifications in several States. Cases having interstate and international ramifications and involving several official agencies where, from all angles, it is considered necessary that a single investigating agency should be incharge of the investigation.   Corruption in CBI Because of its intensely political overtones, it has been exposed by its former bigwigs like Joginder Singh and BR Sharma who were Director and Joint Director respectively, to be engaging in nepotism , mal-prosecution and outright corruption. In his book, Who Owns CBI, BR Lall, an honest and upright officer details the modus operandi of manipulating and derailing investigation[2] [edit] Controversies Normally, cases assigned to the CBI are sensitive and of national importance. It is a usual practice for the respective state police departments, to initially register any case coming under its jurisdiction, and if necessary, through mediation by the central government, the cases may be transferred to the CBI. The CBI handles many high profile cases, and is never far from controversy. Some of the popular cases taken up by the Central Bureau of Investigation are the Bofors, ISRO spy ring, Hawala, Nithari Killings, Sister Abhaya murder case, Dawood Ibrahim case, Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case and many more.

  

Responsibilities

Shrouded in secrecy, the IB is used to garner intelligence from within India and also execute counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism tasks.
The Intelligence Bureau comprises employees from law enforcement agencies, mostly from the Indian Police Service and the military.
However, the Director of Intelligence Bureau (DIB) has always been an IPS officer.
In addition to domestic intelligence responsibilities, the IB is particularly tasked with intelligence collection in border areas, following the 1951 recommendations of the Himmatsinhji Committee (also known as the North and North-East Border Committee), a task entrusted to military intelligence organizations prior to independence in 1947.
All spheres of human activity within India and in the neighborhood are allocated to the charter of duties of the Intelligence Bureau. The IB was also tasked with other external intelligence responsibilities as of 1951 till 1968, when the Research and Analysis Wing was formed.
The current chief of the organization is Rajiv Mathur.

Activities

Understanding of the arcane workings of the IB is largely speculative. One known task of the IB is to clear licenses to amateur radio enthusiasts.
The IB also passes on intelligence between other Indian Intelligence agencies and the Police.
The IB also grants the necessary security clearances to Indian diplomats and judges before they take the oath.
On rare occasions, IB officers interact with the media during a criss situation.
The IB is also rumored to intercept and open around 6,000 letters daily.
It also has an email spying system similar to FBI's Carnivore System.^[5]
The Intelligence Bureau is also authorized to conduct wiretapping without a warrant.
The IB also has numerous authors who write letters to various newspapers and magazines to support the government's perspective. According to recent reports,

 

Workings

The `Class I' (gazette) officers carry out coordination and higher-level management the IB. These officers are (again in increasing order of seniority) Asst. Director, the Joint Deputy Director, Joint Director, the Deputy Director, Additional Director, Special Director or Special Secretary and finally the Director.
The SIB's are headed by officers of the rank of Joint Director or above but smaller SIB's are also sometimes headed by Deputy Directors. The SIB's have their units at district head quarters headed by Deputy Central Intelligence Officers or DCIO's.
The IB maintains a large number of field units and headquarters (which are under the control of Joint or Deputy Directors). It is through these offices and the intricate process of deputation that a very `organic' linkage between the state police agencies and the IB is maintained.
In addition to these, at the national level the IB has several units (in some cases Subsidiary Intelligence Bureaus) to keep track of issues like terrorism, counter-intelligence, VIP security, threat assessment and sensitive areas (i.e. Jammu and Kashmir and such).

 

Some of the problems within the IB are briefly listed below:

1) There are problems regarding recruiting: in the past postings and deputations with the IB were regarded as positive career choices among police officers, and this led to a favorable buildup of expertise in the both state and national law enforcement circles. In more recent times, this has changed, state police forces offer far swifter means of promotion and career advancement, also the perks of state level police postings in some cases compare more favorably than those of a central posting. The result is that people have to be forcibly deputed to the IB. This is further compounded by the fact that IB postings often involve extremely hazardous duties in hostile populations. Thus some postings go unfilled and in some cases the IB gets very thinly stretched on the ground. This leads to gaps in intelligence collection.

2) In sensitive areas (ex. J&K. NER) the pace of security operations is very high. This means that the turnaround time between collection, collation and dissemination has to be very small. IB officers serve largely in advisory capacity and have to coordinate with the regular enforcement arms. To reduce the dead time in intelligence handling, today in most sensitive areas, the law enforcement arms (in most cases) are endowed with their own intelligence units. These units do varying amounts of intelligence targeting and are in theory supposed to coordinate with the IB, sometimes however, this coordination is not achieved and quite possibly another intelligence agency dominates leading to the loss of the `overall picture'.

3) The IB is Government of India's principal internal news agency. It is responsible for monitoring all aspects of governance. As an extension of this role, it routinely monitors the state governments and often draws up independent assessments of the security situation in a state and advises the Governor. At the central level the IB closely monitors developments relating to parliamentary affairs and reports back to the Cabinet Secretariat. The Special Enquiry and Surveillance unit (SES) of the IB handles most of this work. This task is vital in maintaining the stability of elected governments. However it can easily be subverted to achieve less savory aims, especially at the state level. Apart from any actual degradation in capacity, this kind of work breeds the impression in that the IB is purely a mechanism for targeting the opposition.

4) The IB is also tasked with Counter-Intelligence operations. This area of IB work has been the object of severe criticism and almost every internal disturbance is projected as a failure in counter-intelligence (there is always talk of the absence of specificity in threat assessments). Problems related to this part are discussed more extensively in the section on counter-intelligence issues. The task forces have in all probability made several recommendations about these topics. The task force on Internal Security has stated the need to place emphasis on the position of the Secretary (MHA) and that all intelligence regarding internal security developments should be passed to him; this is appears to be an attempt to foster the functioning of the `Core Intelligence Processing Unit' in the MHA. The task force on Internal Security has also made clear the need to create dedicated `systems and procedures' of intelligence dissemination to aid in the conduct of counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency operations. It is also likely that the capabilities in the IB relating to counter-intelligence are being upgraded (this is discussed in greater detail in the section on Counter-Intelligence). The task force on internal security has also called for an end to political interference in the IB, it has suggested that a internal review and oversight body be set up in the IB to stamp out this sort of thing, but it is unclear to the author as to exactly how this mechanism will function.