The National Security Advisor (NSA; ISO: ) is the senior official on the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

of India, and the chief advisor to the

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

national security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military att ...

policy and international affairs.

Ajit Doval Ajit Kumar Doval KC (born 20 January 1945) is a bureaucrat & spymaster, serving as the fifth and current National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister of India, with the precedence equivalent to Cabinet Minister. He previously served as ...

is the current NSA, and has the same rank as a Union Cabinet Minister.

History

Brajesh Mishra Brajesh Chandra Mishra (29 September 1928 – 28 September 2012) was an Indian diplomat from the Indian Foreign Service and politician, best known for serving as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's principal secretary and National Security ...

, then Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, was appointed as the first National Security Advisor of India. The post was created on 19 November 1998 by then government headed by Atal Bihari Bajpayee. In 2004, a new government headed by

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

was formed at the Centre. This government separated the office of NSA into ''foreign'' headed by former

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwe ...

J.N. Dixit Jyotindra Nath Dixit (8 January 1936 – 3 January 2005) was an Indian diplomat, who as served as Foreign Secretary (India), Foreign Secretary (1991–1994), the top bureaucrat in the Ministry of External Affairs (India), Ministry of External Af ...

and ''internal'' headed by former Director, IB

M.K. Narayanan Mayankodu Kelath Narayanan (born 10 March 1934) is a former Indian Police Service officer. He was National Security Adviser of India from 2005 to 2010, assuming the role after the demise of his predecessor Jyotindra Nath Dixit in January 2005. ...

. After the death of Dixit in 2005, the office was again fused and Narayanan became the full-time NSA. He was then succeeded by former

Shivshankar Menon Shivshankar Menon (born 5 July 1949) is an Indian diplomat, who served as National Security Adviser of India under Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. He had previously served as the Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of External Affair ...

in 2010. In 2014, the Modi-led government appointed former Director, IB

as the NSA.

Role

The post has high vested powers, so the NSA is a highly prominent and powerful office in 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, ...

. All NSAs appointed since the inception of the post in 1998 belong to the either

Indian Foreign Service The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is the diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vinay Mohan Kwatra is the 34th and the ...

or to the

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service ( IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became independent from the British Raj. Along with the Indian Administrative Service ( ...

, and serve at the discretion of the

. The National Security Advisor (NSA) is tasked with regularly advising the Prime Minister of India on all matters relating to internal and external threats and opportunities to India, and oversees strategic and sensitive issues on behalf of the Prime Minister. The NSA of India also serves as the Prime Minister's Special Interlocutor with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

as well as the envoy to Pakistan and Israel on security affairs. The NSA receives all intelligence (

R&AW 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, a ...

, IB, NTRO, MI, DIA, NIA) reports and co-ordinates them to present before the Prime Minister. NSA is assisted by the Deputy National Security Advisors (Deputy NSAs). Currently, retired IPS officer

Dattatray Padsalgikar Dattatray "Datta" Padsalgikar (born 26 August 1958) is a senior Indian IPS officer of Maharashtra Cadre, who was, on 30 June 2018, named as the new Director General of Police of Maharashtra and succeeded Satish Mathur. Career An Indian Police ...

, former

chief

Rajinder Khanna Rajinder Khanna is the former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing, the external intelligence agency of India. He joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1978 and was allotted to Odisha cadre. From 1979 to 1985, he held several important p ...

and retired IFS officer Pankaj Saran serve as Deputy National Security Advisors. The policy group is the main mechanism for inter-ministerial coordination and integration of inputs in forming national security policies. The group members include the NITI Aayog vice chairman, the cabinet secretary, the three military chiefs, the Reserve Bank of India governor, the foreign secretary, home secretary, finance secretary and the defense secretary. In June, 2019 NSA

History

Role

List of National Security Advisors

See also

Notes

References