Civil Service Bytes

Three recent events underline India’s efforts to highlight its growing maritime interests and ambitions in order to secure them unilaterally and in partnership with others. The first was the quiet release of the Indian Maritime Security Strategy (IMSS) titled  Ensuring Secure Seas   in October. The second was the holding of the combined senior commanders’ conference, with top officers from all three services, on board   INS Vikramaditya , the Indian Navy’s latest aircraft carrier and its largest platform, in December. The last and most recent was India’s hosting of its second International Fleet Review (IFR) at Visakhapatnam in early February. While the pomp and circumstance as well as the photo-ops of the IFR, which attracted naval vessels from 50 countries, predictably, created the biggest splash, its significance is best understood in tandem with the 185-page IMSS-2015. Although the document is simultaneously comprehensive, conservative and cautious, it conveys on...

The bungled response to the Pathankot attack underscores the need for a three-pronged revamp: parliamentary oversight, a well-defined national security doctrine and an independent federal commission of accountability. Most terror attacks in India are characterised by three critical missteps: ignored intelligence inputs, inconsistent security response, and heavy casualties. Consider, for instance, the Pathankot and the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks. A few days before the boat with terrorists actually landed in Mumbai, the Intelligence Bureau had details of the specific location of a satellite phone used by terrorists on a boat moving towards the Mumbai coast. In the run-up to the attacks, there were at least two more specific alerts Indian agencies had about a possible attack on Mumbai. After  166 people were killed, hundreds injured, and India held to ransom for days  and humiliated on the global stage by 10 terrorists, no one was held accountable. Those who were su...

By restarting dialogue with Pakistan and acting with diplomatic restraint following the Pathankot attack, the Narendra Modi government has wisely differentiated between the Pakistan government and non-state actors. The challenge thrown up by the terrorist attack on the Pathankot air force base is to evolve India’s national security doctrine to include its response to non-state actors. While carrying on diplomatic engagement with Pakistan, India needs a firm strategy to deal with terrorist threats that are now the prime challenge to the state. Political consensus must be evolved, in a publicly transparent manner, to reflect the complex challenge facing the country, detail its thresholds, interests that would be protected at any cost and response calibration vis-à-vis armed aggression. The doctrine must be accompanied by a national security strategy that spells out the command and control structures for meeting eventualities such as terror strikes, so that last-minute goof-ups such as t...

Opinion on the recent  terrorist attack on the Pathankot air force base : Summary of the opinion: By restarting dialogue with Pakistan and acting with diplomatic restraint following the Pathankot attack, the Narendra Modi government has wisely differentiated between the Pakistan government and non-state actors.  The challenge thrown up by the terrorist attack on the Pathankot air force base is to evolve India’s national security doctrine to include its response to non-state actors. India needs a firm strategy to deal with terrorist threats that are now the prime challenge to the state. Political consensus must be evolved last-minute goof-ups such as those that have been evident at the Pathankot airbase are not repeated. India enjoys Westphalian sovereignty, which grants it exclusive right to its domestic affairs and security but also comes with a huge bundle of responsibilities. India still has no written national security doctrine...

Steps taken by M/O Tourism to Ensure Safety and Security of Tourists, Including Foreign Tourists ‘Public Order’ and ‘Police’ are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. As such, the prevention of crime, including crimes against tourists, is the primary responsibility of State Governments/Union Territories. In order to ensure safety and security of tourists, including foreign tourists, Ministry of Tourism has advised all the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations to deploy Tourist Police in the States/Union Territories. The State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha have deployed Tourist Police in one form or the other.  In order to ensure safety and security of tourists, including foreign tourists, the Ministry of Tourism has taken following steps: i.    The Ministry of Tourism, ...

NATGRID (National Intelligence Grid) Current status: The Union government is set to make an aggressive effort to accomplish one of the most  ambitious intelligence projects  in recent memory, which failed to take off during United Progressive Alliance rule. On December 16, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a circular to fill the post of CEO of NATGRID. The circular calls for applicants with a Masters in Electronics, IT or equivalent with an experience of working in the IT-related field for 25 years. Both serving as well as retired government officials can apply. The circular also says that if a private person is hired, his/her salary would be Rs. 10 lakh a month and if it’s a government servant, it will be his last drawn salary or the present salary. National Democratic Alliance government refused to renew the contract of Raghu Raman , NATGRID’s first and only CEO  on the basis of an alleged adverse intelligence report. Ashok Prasad , Secretary,...