Intelligence Bureau (IB)

IB is India’s premier internal intelligence agency to gather intelligence from within India and also execute counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence tasks.

  • The agency was created in 1887 by the British Secretary of State as a “Central Special Branch” in London, to monitor Russian troop deployments in Afghanistan to prevent a Russian invasion of British India through the North-Western region. The agency was later renamed as ‘Intelligence Bureau’ in 1920. After independence in 1947, the agency was placed under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
  • Following the recommendations of Himmat Singh Ji Committee (North and North East Committee), the Intelligence Bureau was entrusted the task of intelligence collection in border areas since 1951. This task was conducted previously by military intelligence organizations.
  • In post-independent India, the Intelligence Bureau acted as both an internal and external intelligence agency. However, due to lapses on part of Intelligence Bureau to predict the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the India-Pakistan War in 1965, the agency was bifurcated in 1968 and entrusted with the task of internal agency only. The external intelligence branch was handed over to the newly created Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
  • Currently, the functioning of Intelligence Bureau (IB) is neither regulated by an act of the Indian parliament nor by any government executive order.

Coastal Security in India

  • Indian coasts are guarded by a 3-tier system of State Marine Police, Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Indian Navy.
  • The ICG conducts coastal security exercises involving all stakeholders in all coastal states/UTs biannually to validate these Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for functioning of coastal police stations and also ICG promulgates these SOPs for coordination among various agencies on coastal security issues.
  • The coastline has been further secured by the creation of chain of static sensors and Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers along the Indian Coast and Radars operated by the ICG at 45 locations while 38 more Radars are planned to be installed for gapless surveillance of the coastline.
  • The MHA has issued Guidelines to the coastal states/UTs in regard to security of non-major ports.
  • For training of coastal police, in-principle approval has been accorded for setting up of National Marine Police Training Institute in Gujarat and State Marine Police Training Centres in the Police Training Academies of States and Union Territories.
  • In order to track illegal movement, registration of fishing vessels has been made compulsory and for sensitizing fishermen on safety issues, community interaction programmes are conducted by Indian Coast Guard.

There is no silver bullet to deal with the wide-ranging challenges. It is most important to be aware of the likely threats and take pre-emptive steps to deal with them. The state should be ready to handle such threats by adopting a suitable systemic approach. Capabilities, capacities and a timely response is the key to neutralise threats and defeat the strategy of the adversaries.

  • The major function of the IB includes counter intelligence, counter terrorism, VIP security, anti-secession activities, intelligence collection in border areas and infrastructure protection.
  • The Bureau is also authorized to intercept letters and conduct wiretapping without a warrant.

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