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Research & Analysis Wing
Research and Analysis Wing is the primary intelligence agency, in the Republic of India, which first came into being in 1968 in September, when R.N. Kao was the first director. The need of setting up the RAW was to better the performance of the Intelligence Bureau, which until then, was handling the external and internal intelligence gathering, fuelled more during the war with China and Pakistan respectively in 1962 and 1965. Government then became convinced that an independent agency, would have been a better source of gathering external intelligence.
Therefore, the Research and Analysis Wing or RAW was created, so that the counter terrorism and external intelligence collection could be streamlined. Apart from this, it also worked towards collecting information and analysing them, which were related to corporations, foreign governments and also advised in the policy making. Another sphere in which RAW has been involved is in the nuclear program of India.
The RAW is having its headquarters in New Delhi and presently is having Sanjeev Tripathi as the director, who is an IPS officer of UP cadre of 1973 batch. Alok Joshi is designated to take over the organisation from 30th December 2012.
Objectives
The present day objectives of RAW includes, but are not limited to.
- Helping in the monitoring of military and political developments in the neighbouring countries, if these cases have direct relation to the nation’s security and the making of policies related to foreign matters.
- In the second format, opinion from international public is brought forward with the strengthening of Indian diaspora.
During the war of 1962, the RAW had other objectives such as watching over the international policies of communism of Soviet Union and China. Another part of this policy was to limit the hardware supply to military logistics to Pakistan, from various other foreign countries.
The manner in which the RAW works, is mostly speculation, and excerpts which are read in the news, internet and journals. Plenty of offices are linked to the headquarters, which control different functions and have controlling officers heading these sections, which are assigned to different projects. Also working on these projects are many desk officers and field officers, who pass on the information to their higher officers, where the information gets screened and analysed. People working in this organisation are known as research officers, instead of agents, and many of these officers are also women, some also working in the field level.
Functions and methods
Research and Analysis Wing of Indian Intelligence is involved in the monitoring of the activities of some organisations in the foreign countries, to the extent of their involvement in terrorist and smuggling activities and in collection of data regarding scientific, political, military and economic intelligence. Looking out for criminals in the foreign lands is not the work of this organisation. The main aim of R&AW is to gather intelligence in an aggressive manner, through espionage, subversion techniques, psychological warfare, sabotage and other means required. Many secret services are having collaborative activities with this organisation, for receiving information on different activities going on in countries which are possible threats.
Especially of interest is the information collected on various covert and overt operation and these are filed through highly secretive computer networks. Most of these operatives get into jobs in the government and private sectors and have freedom of mobility.