Strengthening India’s External Intelligence Infrastructure: An Assessment

This paper outlines a number of points, which would help to develop a more superior external intelligence infrastructure. In absence of a national security strategy (NSS), the task of intelligence agencies in India has failed to be systemic. India’s intelligence infrastructure lacks a holistic view and very less effort has been put to reorganize intelligence infrastructure o the basis of contemporary threat perceptions. Without a strong security infrastructure country cannot eye towards becoming a regional power. Due to a rigid security system, India has a disparate intelligence mechanism in service. While little effort has gone towards synergizing all sources of intelligence and request dissemination in real time/ near real time basis. To address these concerns, the external intelligence infrastructure primarily needs to undergo a drastic review. Secondly, it needs to be ascertained that the failure in generation of intelligence on strategic level is not due to the failure in action but due to its inherent structure. Although many efforts have gone in to recognize the problems faced by the agencies, less effort have been veined in to provide a good organizational structure based on the problems faced by these agencies.