The National Security Council (NSC) ( IAST: ''Rāṣṭrīya Surakṣā Pariṣad'') of India is an executive government agency tasked with advising the

Prime Minister's Office Prime Minister's Office may refer to: * Prime Minister's Office (Albania) * Prime Minister's Office (Australia) * Prime Minister's Office (Bangladesh) * Prime Minister's Office (Brunei) * Office of the Prime Minister (Cambodia) * Office of the ...

on matters of national security and strategic interest. It was established by the former Prime Minister of India

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

on 19 November 1998, with Brajesh Mishra as the first

National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils. National secu ...

. Prior to the formation of the NSC, these activities were overseen by the Principal Secretary to the preceding

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Members

Besides the

(NSA), Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), the Deputy National Security Advisors, the Ministers of

Defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

, External Affairs,

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it ...

, Finance of the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

, and the Vice Chairman of the

NITI Aayog The NITI Aayog (; abbreviation for National Institution for Transforming India) serves as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of India, and the nodal agency tasked with catalyzing economic development, and fostering cooperative ...

are members of the National Security Council. PM can chair the meeting of NSC (for eg - PM chaired the meeting of NSC Post Pulwama to discuss heightened tension with Pakistan). Other members may be invited to attend its monthly meetings, as and when it is required.

Organisational structure

The NSC is the apex body of the three-tiered structure of the national security management system in India. The three tiers are the Strategic Policy Group, the National Security Advisory Board and a secretariat from the Joint Intelligence Committee.

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.

Ajit Doval is the chairman of the group and it consists of the following members: * Vice Chairman Niti Aayog Suman Bery * Cabinet Secretary (

Rajiv Gauba Rajiv Gauba (born 15 August 1959; IAST: ) is an Indian civil servant serving as the current Cabinet Secretary of India since 2019. He is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer belonging 1982 batch of Jharkhand (erstwhile Bihar) cadre ...

, IAS) * Chief of Defence Staff (

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

Anil Chauhan) * Chief of the Army Staff (

Manoj Pande General Manoj Pande, (born 6 May 1962) is an Indian Army General serving as the 29th and the current Chief of the Army Staff. He previously served as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff, General Officer-Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Comma ...

) * Chief of the Naval Staff ( Admiral R. Hari Kumar) * Chief of the Air Staff (

Air Chief Marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer originating from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. An air chief marshal is equivalent to an Adm ...

Vivek Ram Chaudhari) * Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ( Shaktikanta Das) *

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

(

Vinay Mohan Kwatra Vinay Mohan Kwatra is an Indian diplomat of IFS cadre serving as the 34th and the current Foreign Secretary of India since May 2022, succeeding Harsh Vardhan Shringla. Previously, he has served as the Ambassador of India to France and Nepal. ...

, IFS) * Defence Secretary (Giridhar Aramane, IAS) *

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

(

Ajay Kumar Bhalla Ajay Kumar Bhalla is the current Home Secretary of India. He assumed the office on 23 August 2019, succeeding Rajiv Gauba. He is a senior IAS IAS may refer to: Science * Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey, United States * I ...

, IAS) * Finance Secretary (

T. V. Somanathan T. V. Somanathan (born 10 May 1965) is a 1987 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre. He is presently the Finance Secretary of India (Department of expenditure). Earlier he was Additional Secretary and Joint Secr ...

, IAS) *

Secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a ...

(Research) (i.e. the head of the

Research and Analysis Wing The Research and Analysis Wing (abbreviated R&AW; hi, ) is the foreign intelligence agency of India. The agency's primary function is gathering foreign intelligence, counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, advising Indian policymakers, ...

) (

Samant Goel Samant Kumar Goel is an Indian civil servant working as an intelligence officer and is of the IPS cadre. He is the current Chief of the Research and Analysis Wing, India's foreign intelligence agency. He was appointed as the Chief of R&AW on 26 ...

, IPS) * Director General of Defence Intelligence Agency (

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

GAV Reddy Lieutenant General GAV Reddy, AVSM, SC, VSM is a serving general officer of the Indian Army. He currently serves as the Director General of Defence Intelligence Agency (India). He earlier served as the Commandant of the Officers Training Academ ...

) * Director of the Intelligence Bureau (

Tapan deka Tapan Kumar Deka commonly known as Tapan Deka (born 25 February 1963) is the 28th Director of Intelligence Bureau of India. Deka is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer (Himachal Pradesh cadre) of the 1988 (41RR), Deka was empanelled as Directo ...

, IPS) *

Chairperson, Central Board of Direct Taxes The Chairperson, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is the senior-most IRS (IT) civil servant in the Government of India. The Chairperson of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is the Special Secretary to the Government of India and also ca ...

(Pramod Chandra Mody, IRS (IT)) *

(Defence Production) (Giridhar Aramane, IAS) * Scientific Advisor to the Raksha Mantri and Chairman of

Defence Research and Development Organisation The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) ( IAST: ''Raksā Anūsandhān Evam Vikās Sangaṭhan'') is the premier agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in Ministry of Defence of the Government of India ...

(DRDO) (Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy) *

(

Atomic Energy Atomic energy or energy of atoms is energy carried by atoms. The term originated in 1903 when Ernest Rutherford began to speak of the possibility of atomic energy.Isaac Asimov, ''Atom: Journey Across the Sub-Atomic Cosmos'', New York:1992 Plume, ...

) (Dr. K. N. Vyas) *

(

Space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually con ...

) and '' ex-officio'' Chairman,

Indian Space Research Organization The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman of ...

(ISRO) (Dr.

Sreedhara Panicker Somanath Sreedhara Panicker Somanath (born July 1963) is an Indian aerospace engineer serving as the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Somanath also served as the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram a ...

) 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. 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 Nuclear strategy involves the development of doctrines and strategies for the production and use of nuclear weapons. As a sub-branch of military strategy, nuclear strategy attempts to match nuclear weapons as means to political ends. In addi ...

for the country in 2001, a Strategic Defence Review in 2002 and a National Security Review in 2007. 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. 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. It has a tenure of two years.

Joint Intelligence Committee

The Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) of the

analyses intelligence data from the

Intelligence Bureau Intelligence Bureau may refer to: * Intelligence Bureau (India) * Intelligence Bureau (Pakistan) * Intelligence agency See also *Intelligence Bureau for the East, a World War I German organisation *Intelligence agency *National Intelligence Servic ...

and the Directorates of

Military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...

, Naval and

Air Intelligence The Directorate General Air Intelligence, known as "Air Intelligence" and its acronym "AI", ( ur, ) is the intelligence arm of the Pakistan Air Force. It is headquartered in Islamabad, Pakistan. The AI is responsible for the formulation of ...

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 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 The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) is a technical intelligence agency under the National Security Advisor in the Prime Minister's Office, India. It was set up in 2004. It has the same "norms of conduct" as the Intelligence ...

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''.

References

External links

Official website of the National Security Advisory BoardTrusted Telecom Portal - National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector

Center for Contemporary Conflict - Indian Internal Security and Intelligence Organization

FAS - Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence

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India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

Councils of India

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