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.
07:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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