WHAT IS RAW AND WHEN WAS IT CREATED?
The Research and Analysis Wing is India’s main international intelligence agency. RAW was created in September 1968 under the guidance of Rameshwar Nath Kao, with its head office in New Delhi, India. He was RAW’s first Director. RAW's primary objectives are to collect foreign intelligence, encouraging counter-proliferation, counter-terrorism and developing India’s international strategic interests.
#researchandanalysiswing #raw #howrawworks #historyofraw
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The Research and Analysis Wing is India’s main international intelligence agency. RAW was created in September 1968 under the guidance of Rameshwar Nath Kao, with its head office in New Delhi, India. He was RAW’s first Director. RAW's primary objectives are to collect foreign intelligence, encouraging counter-proliferation, counter-terrorism and developing India’s international strategic interests.
#researchandanalysiswing #raw #howrawworks #historyofraw
~HT.99~PR.152~PR.100~
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00:00 The Research and Analysis Wing is India's main international intelligence agency.
00:08 RAW was created in September 1968 under the guidance of Rameshwaran Nath Kao with its
00:13 head office in New Delhi, India.
00:16 He was RAW's first director.
00:18 RAW's primary objectives are to collect foreign intelligence, encourage counter-proliferation,
00:24 counter-terrorism and developing India's international strategic interests.
00:29 The weak performance of the intelligence office in the battles against China in 1962 and Pakistan
00:34 in 1965 was the most important reason for India to create RAW.
00:39 It started as a branch of the Chief Intelligence Service with 250 staff members and an annual
00:44 budget of around $20 million.
00:48 In the early 70s, the RAW annual budget rose to some $300 million while its staff and workforce
00:54 were in the thousands.
00:55 Until 1968, the Intelligence Bureau, which is responsible for India's internal intelligence,
01:02 also handled external intelligence.
01:04 But in 1968, the need for a separate external intelligence agency was clear.
01:10 During the China conflict, "Our intelligence failed to detect Chinese build-up for the
01:14 attack," wrote Major General V.K.
01:16 Singh, a retired Army officer who did a stint in RAW in his 2007 book, India's External
01:21 Intelligence, Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing.
01:25 As a result, India established a dedicated external intelligence agency, the Research
01:30 and Analysis Wing.
01:31 RAW's first leader, Rameshwar Nath Kaur, led the agency until he retired in 1977.
01:38 Many experts, including officers who worked with him, credit Kaur with RAW's initial
01:41 successes.
01:42 But the organization has been criticized for its lack of coordination with domestic intelligence
01:47 and security agencies, weak analytical capabilities, and complete lack of transparency.
01:53 Founded mainly to focus on China and Pakistan over the last 40 years, the organization has
01:57 expanded.
01:58 RAW is now credited with greatly increasing India's influence abroad.
02:03 Experts say RAW's powers and its role in India's foreign policy have varied under different
02:08 prime ministers.
02:09 RAW claims that it contributed to several foreign policy successes, like the creation
02:14 of Bangladesh in 1971, India's growing influence in Afghanistan, Sikkim's accession to India
02:20 in 1975, the security of India's nuclear program, among others.
02:25 Not much is known regarding the structure of RAW.
02:28 The organization started with 250 people.
02:30 It has since expanded to several thousand personnel, but its staffing and budget remains
02:35 a secret.
02:36 However, an estimate by the U.S.-based Federation of American Scientists suggests that in 2000,
02:41 RAW had about 8,000 to 10,000 agents and a budget that experts place at $145 million.
02:48 Unlike the U.S. CIA or Britain's MI6, RAW reports directly to the prime minister instead
02:54 of the Ministry of Defense.
02:55 The chief of RAW is a designated secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, which is part
02:59 of the prime minister's office.
03:01 Some officers of RAW are members of a specialized service, the Research and Analysis Service,
03:06 but several officers also serve on deputations from other services such as the Indian Police
03:11 Service.
03:12 RAW had two priorities after its formation, writes B. Raman, a former RAW official, in
03:19 the 2007 book, The Cowboys of RAW, down memory lane.
03:23 The organization works to strengthen its capability for intelligence gathering on Pakistan and
03:28 China and for covert action in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
03:31 Over time, RAW's objectives have broadened to include monitoring the political and military
03:36 developments in adjoining countries, which have direct bearing on India's national security
03:41 and in the formulation of its foreign policy.
03:44 It also tries to control and limit the supply of military hardware to Pakistan, mostly from
03:49 European countries, the U.S. and China.
03:51 But experts disagree on the amount of influence RAW asserts on India's foreign policy.
03:58 RAW played a significant role in the formation of Bangladesh, along with the Indian Army
04:01 and other Indian security and intelligence agencies.
04:04 Besides providing intelligence to policy makers and the army, RAW trained and armed Mukti
04:09 Bahini, a group of East Pakistanis fighting for the separate state of Bangladesh.
04:15 Analysts say that RAW also facilitated the Northeastern State of Sikkim's accession to
04:18 India in 1975 and provided military assistance to groups hostile to the pro-China regime
04:24 in Myanmar.
04:27 It was the support for the Tamil separatist group, the LTTE, in Sri Lanka that brought
04:31 RAW much criticism from human rights organizations.
04:35 RAW helped train and arm the LTTE in the 1970s, but after the group's terrorist activities
04:40 grew in the 1980s, RAW withdrew the support.
04:43 In 1987, New Delhi made a pact with the Sri Lankan government to send peacekeeping troops
04:48 to the island, and Indian forces ended up fighting the group RAW had armed.
04:52 In 1991, Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India at the time of the peacekeeping force deployment,
04:57 was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber.
05:02 Since its creation in 1968, RAW has had a close relationship with KHAD, the Afghan Intelligence
05:08 Agency.
05:09 This relationship was strengthened in the early 1980s when the foundation was laid for
05:13 a trilateral cooperation involving RAW, KHAD and the Soviet KGB.
05:17 KHAD helped RAW monitor the activities of Sikh militants in Pakistan's tribal areas.
05:24 The CIA assisted in the creation of RAW, according to South Asian expert Stephen P. Cohen of
05:29 the Brookings Institution.
05:30 However, India's intelligence relations with the CIA started even before the existence
05:35 of RAW.
05:36 After India's war with China in 1962, CIA instructors trained Indian operatives to execute
05:42 deep penetration terror operations in China.
05:47 The intrusion of Pakistan-backed armed forces into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir
05:51 in 1999 prompted questions about RAW's efficacy.
05:55 Some analysts saw the conflict as an intelligence failure.
05:58 However, RAW officials argued they had provided the intelligence but political leadership
06:02 had failed to act on it.
06:04 The Indian government formed a committee to look into the failure and recommended remedial
06:08 measures.
06:09 The report of the Kargil Review Committee was then examined by a group of ministers
06:13 established in 2000.
06:15 The group recommended a formal written charter and pointed out lack of coordination and communication
06:20 within various intelligence agencies.
06:23 Following the review, a new organization was set up, the National Technical Research Organization
06:27 or NTRO, which became responsible for the nation's technical intelligence spy satellites,
06:33 unmanned aerial vehicles and spy planes.
06:35 The government also decided to create a Defense Intelligence Agency or DIA, whose head would
06:40 be the advisor of the Chief of Staff's Committee and the Defense Minister.
06:44 The DIA was empowered to conduct trans-border operations.
06:48 However, the shakeup of the intelligence apparatus has not removed some problems, especially
06:53 relating to the overlap of agency activities, according to experts.
06:57 Earlier, RAW was the only organization permitted to conduct espionage operations abroad.
07:01 Now, both the IB and DIA have the authority to conduct such operations.
07:07 This was all for this video.
07:08 Thank you for watching.
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