National Security Council (India)

The National Security Council (NSC) (IAST: Rāṣṭrīya Surakṣā Pariṣad) of India is an executive government agency tasked with advising the Prime Minister's Office on matters of national security and strategic interest. It was established by the former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 19 November 1998, with Brajesh Mishra as the first National Security Advisor.

National Security Council (India)
राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा परिषद्
Rāṣṭrīya Surakṣā Pariṣad
Hindi pronunciation: [raːʂʈrɪjə sʊrəkʂaː pərɪʂəd]
Agency overview
Formed19 November 1998 (1998-11-19)
JurisdictionGovernment of India
HeadquartersNational Security Council Secretariat, Sardar Patel Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi - 110001[1]
Agency executives
Child agency
  • National Security Law Division

Members

Besides the National Security Advisor (NSA), Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), the Deputy National Security Advisors, the Ministers of Defence, External Affairs, Home, Finance of the Government of India, and the Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog are members of the National Security Council.

Organisational structure

The NSC is the apex body of the three-tiered structure of the national security management system in India which excercises its power through National Security Council Secretariat having four verticals namely Strategic Planning, Internal Affairs, Intelligence and Technology and a Military vertical. The three tiers of the National Security Council are the Strategic Policy Group, the National Security Advisory Board and a secretariat from the Joint Intelligence Committee.[3][4]

Strategic Policy Group

The Strategic Policy Group is the first level of the three tier structure of the National Security Council. It forms the nucleus of the decision-making apparatus of the NSC. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is the chairman of the group and it consists of the following members:

The Strategic Policy Group undertakes the Strategic Defence Review, a blueprint of short and long term security threats, as well as possible policy options on a priority basis.

National Security Advisory Board

The brainchild of the first National Security Advisor (NSA), Brajesh Mishra, a former member of Indian Foreign Service. The National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) consists of a group of eminent national security experts outside of the government.[5] Members are usually senior retired officials, civilian as well as military, academics and distinguished members of civil society drawn from and having expertise in Internal and External Security, Foreign Affairs, Defence, Science & Technology and Economic Affairs.

The first NSAB, constituted in December 1998, headed by the late K. Subrahmanyam produced a draft Nuclear Doctrine for the country in 2001, a Strategic Defence Review in 2002 and a National Security Review in 2007.[6]

The board meets at least once a month, and more frequently as required. It provides a long-term prognosis and analysis to the NSC and recommends solutions and address policy issues referred to it. Initially the Board was constituted for one year, but since 2004-06, the Board has been reconstituted for two years.[7]

The tenure of the previous NSAB, headed by former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, ended in January 2015. It had 14 members.

The new board has been re-constituted in July 2018, with P. S. Raghavan, former Indian Ambassador to Russia (2014–16), as its head. The NSAB has currently two subordinate bodies working under it :- (i) National Information Board (NIB) and (ii) Technology Coordination Group (TCG). It has a tenure of two years.[6]

Currently the board has the following members:[8][9][10]-

Members Experience
Ajit Doval National Security Advisor
Bimal N. Patel Vice-Chancellor, Rashtriya Raksha University
K. Radhakrishnan former Chairman, ISRO
Anshuman Tripathy Associate Professor, IIM Bangalore
Arun K. Singh former Ambassador to France and the United States.
Tilak Devasher Pakistan specialist and former senior intelligence officer
Prof. V. Kamakoti Director, IIT Madras
Kulbir Krishnan former DGP, Meghalaya
Aloke Joshi former Chairman, NTRO
Lt Gen. S. L. Narasimhan (retd) Director General, Centre for Contemporary China Studies, MEA
Sridhar Vembu Founder and CEO, Zoho Corporation

Joint Intelligence Committee

The Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) of the Government of India analyses intelligence data from the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing and the Directorates of Military, Naval and Air Intelligence and thus analyses both domestic and foreign intelligence. The JIC has its own Secretariat that works under the Cabinet Secretariat.

Cyber Security

National Cyber Security Strategy is formulated by the Office of National Cyber Security Coordinator at the National Security Council Secretariat. The National Security Council Secretariat and National Information Board headed by National Security Adviser are at working under the cyber security surveillance helping in framing India’s cyber security policy. It aims to protect the cyber space including critical information infrastructure from attack, damage, misuse and economic espionage.

In 2014 the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre under the National Technical Research Organisation mandated the protection of critical information infrastructure. In 2015, the Office of National Cyber Security Coordinator was created to advice the Prime Minister on strategic cyber security issues. In the case of nodal entity, India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in) is playing a crucial role under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MEITY).

On 15 June 2021, the Government of India launched the Trusted Telecom Portal signalling the coming into effect of the National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector (NSDTS). Consequently, with effect from 15 June 2021 the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) are mandatorily required to connect in their networks only those new devices which are designated as Trusted Products from Trusted Sources.[11][12]

See also

References
  1. "Contact Us". National Security Advisory Board. Archived from the original on 27 February 2017.
  2. "India's revamped security set-up gets IPS, intelligence influx". 5 January 2018.
  3. "About NSAB". National Security Advisory Board. Archived from the original on 16 April 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  4. "National Security Council". ALLGOV INDIA.
  5. Gupta, Arvind. "Brajesh Mishra's Legacy to National Security and Diplomacy". Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  6. "National Security Advisory Board reconstituted with ex-envoy to Russia Raghavan as head". The Economic Times. 13 July 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  7. "National Security Advisory Board". 16 April 2017. Archived from the original on 16 April 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  8. "Zoho's Sridhar Vembu appointed to Doval-led National Security Advisory Board". The Economic Times. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  9. "Nsab Meets At Rru | Ahmedabad News - Times of India". The Times of India. TNN. 11 June 2022. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  10. Gokhale, Nitin A. (2 February 2021). "NSAB Draws Expertise from Private Sector". Bharat Shakti. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  11. "Launch of the Trusted Telecom Portal for implementation of the National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector" (PDF). 15 June 2020.
  12. www.ETTelecom.com. "Indian government launches trusted telecom portal - ET Telecom". ETTelecom.com. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
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