Internal Security (Border Management and Related Agencies) by R P Singh

Model Answer

Question #1. Securing country’s borders against interests hostile to the country, while facilitating legitimate trade and commerce are among the principal objectives of border management. In this context, examine the various challenges faced by India in border management. Also, discuss the role of technology to counter border security challenges.

Approach:

•   Briefly introduce the need for proper  border management ( 30 words)
•   Various challenges faced by India in border management( 70 words)
•   Role of technology in border management ( 60 words)
•   Steps taken by India to secure its border ( 60 words)
•   Conclusion ( 30 words)

Hints:

The proper management of borders, which is vital to national security, presents many challenges and includes coordination and concerted action by the administrative, diplomatic, security, intelligence, legal, regulatory and economic agencies of the country to secure the frontiers and serve its best interest. The borders of India run through different terrains, managing such a diverse border is a complex task but very significant from the view of national security.

Various challenges faced by India in border management

• Lack of coordination: The employment of multiple forces results in problems of command and control as well as the lack of accountability for encroachments, poor intelligence and inept handling of local sensitivities. For example the western sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh and the central sector along the Uttarakhand border are manned by Vikas battalions of the Special Frontier Force that reports to the Cabinet Secretariat and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police that is a Ministry of Home Affairs police force, respectively.
•  Under utilization of high-tech surveillance: At present, many of the high-tech surveillance devices deployed by the BSF are not optimally utilized because the required technical expertise is not uniformly available among the forces personnel.
• Illegal Migration: India faces a problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh and other neighboring countries. It leads to pressure on resources creating a source of conflict in India. illegal migration has also created ethnic conflict in the north east as the local population in many states have been reduced to minority causing a sense of insecurity and hence ethnic conflicts.
• Terrorism: India has been major victim of cross border terrorism sponsored by Pakistan which is mostly executed through cross border infiltration. Recent attacks in Pathankot, Uri, Pulwama and Balakot underline the security challenge posed by infiltration.
• Insurgency and Left Wing Extremism: Infiltration is being used by external forces to support insurgency in the North east by extending support of arms and ammunition through infiltration. Similarly Left wing Extremist groups also find external support through infiltration.
• Import of Counterfeit currency and Drugs smuggling: India faces significant menace of fake currency and drugs smuggling which is routed through borders due to easy cross border infiltration.
• Difficult Terrain: India-China Border comprising difficult Himalayan terrain resulted into difficulty in border management.
• Adverse Climatic Conditions: Due to Himalayan polar condition, it is tough to guard border of China and Pakistan
• Bitter relations with some of the neighbouring countries. Eg. Pakistan
• Porous nature of the border with some countries provides a safe route to human traffickers, illegal arms dealers, drug smugglers, etc. Eg. Myanmar

Role of technology in border management are as follow:

• Upgrading existing system: Technology can be integrated with the existing systems to facilitate better detection and interception by the man behind the machine.
• Checking infiltration: It can be helped to detect infiltration via land, underwater, air and tunnels by deploying close circuit television cameras, thermal imagers and night vision devices etc.
• Facilitate Cross Border Trade: For example: Blockchain technology can help quickly and securely process transactions, it also makes it much easier to identify and trace illegitimate trade.
• Facilitate Communication: It can be used for better coordination among various stakeholders by providing timely information.
• Deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) in remote areas will be also coordinated through satellite communications.
• Deployment of dedicated communication satellites:
  • GSAT 7 is the first dedicated military communication satellite built by ISRO that will provide services to the Indian defence forces with the main user being the Indian Navy.
  • GSAT-7A is meant primarily for the Indian Air Force with Indian Army using 30% of capacity.
  • India uses the RISAT and Cartosat satellites to capture still images as well as high-resolution video of the nation’s disputed borders.
• Improved Intelligence inputs and Surveillance: through Remote sensing satellites, radar satellites and satellites with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors which are capable of providing day and night all terrain and all-weather inputs.
• Facilitate Navigation: Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)-based GPS will provide navigation facilities for operational parties in high altitude, remote and difficult borders, and Maoist affected areas.

Steps taken by India to secure its border

•   BOLD-QIT : Recently, Union Home Minister inaugurated the smart border fencing project and the project BOLD-QIT (Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique) under the comprehensive integrated border management system (CIBMS) programme.
•   Several initiatives have been undertaken by the Department of Border Management. These include construction of the fence, floodlighting and building roads along Indo-Pakistan, Indo-Bangladesh, Indo-China and Indo-Nepal borders.
•   Development of Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) at various locations on the international borders of the country and measures to strengthen Coastal Security.
•   In addition, various developmental works in the border areas have been undertaken by the Department under the BADP as part of a comprehensive approach to the border management.

Conclusion

India has to understand that there is a need to collectively address border security problems through military means, bilateral diplomacy and international political support. At the same time India has to ensure that internal stability especially religious one, is maintained and support of all religious groups is strengthened to fight the cross border terrorism. Similarly, One of the most important challenges of border management is integration of the local community in border management. Preventing alienation of the border population, winning their hearts and minds by formulating inclusive border management policies is of paramount importance.  There is a need to recognize the local bordering community as a prime stakeholder in border management.

Question #2.The paradigm shift in the nature of the security challenges facing the country lends urgency to the need for reforms in the country’s intelligence apparatus. Evaluate.

Approach:

• The question demands the analysis of  India’s intelligence apparatus reform  in the light of emerging security challenges
• In the Introduction, provide a brief overview about Intelligence services and briefly describe India’s intelligence apparatus.
• Then briefly list the emerging security challenges that India faces. Enumerate the challenges faced by intelligence agencies 
• Provide suggestions for reforming the Intelligence apparatus of Country.
• Conclude with the way forward to remove the lacunae of intelligence services

Hints:

There are five components of national security management, namely (i) diplomacy, (ii) economy, (iii) military, (iv) internal security, and (v) intelligence. Intelligence service is defined as the collection, collation, analysis and assessment of information pertaining to national security or having a bearing on formulation of national strategies

India’s Intelligence apparatus

• India’s intelligence apparatus consists of various agencies, of which the Intelligence Bureau (IB) is the oldest. IB reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs and is responsible for India’s domestic intelligence, internal security, and counter-intelligence.
• The Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), meanwhile, is the country’s foreign intelligence agency.
• The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), is the technical intelligence agency of the Government of India.
• There is also the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) that is tasked with anti-smuggling intelligence

New Challenges of national security management:

• There are Conventional threats like
  • offensive armed postures by hostile powers, 
  • Nuclear, biological and chemical threats,
  • Terrorism and insurgency
  • Transnational crimes (e.g. drug smuggling or trade in counterfeit currency)
  • Human trafficking
• Non-conventional and newer challenges include:
  • Migration
  • Epidemics (Like the ongoing COVID pandemic)
  • Natural disaster
  • Environmental security
  • Cyber terrorism

Challenges faced by intelligence agencies:

• Ambiguity in the functioning and overlap in functioning : Like  Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and NTRO have overlapping roles in collecting technical and communications intelligence.
• Ad-hoc decision making: Many of its intelligence agencies are created not as part of a deliberate strategic vision, but merely as a response to a crisis, like R&AW was created in response to the Kargil war.
• Inadequate intelligence: Like intelligence failure in Sino-India confrontation on LAC, in May 2020.
• Lack of dedicated cadre: The different branches of the military have their own intelligence wings and have their own cadre of intelligence officers. The same problem lies with the civilian intelligence systems.
• Lack of insight for the newer threats : New threats like Pegasus malware attack managed to breach the WhatsApp communication platform’s end-to-end encryption protocol
• Need for better accountability and oversight.

Recommendations for reforms:

1. Introduce legislation in Parliament for laying down the charters, functions and duties of intelligence organisations and provide a legal basis for different tiers of accountability.
2. Have open and separate direct recruitment mechanisms for different intelligence agencies
3. Improve training for analysts in tools of modern prescriptive work
4. Enhance in-house technical research and development capabilities especially in relation to signals decryption work, and cryptography capabilities
5. Upgrade offensive as well as defensive capabilities in cyber warfare
6. Introduce a system of interchangeability between various intelligence agencies and the connected Ministries of the Government of India.
7. Appoint a National Intelligence Coordinator/Director of National Intelligence to bring about better interagency coordination, remove overlaps and duplications, end ‘turf-wars’ and ensure better utilisation of national resources
8. Set up a Parliamentary Accountability Committee for oversight of intelligence agencies through legislation

Conclusion

Given the immense new security challenges confronting India as it emerges as a global power, a paradigm shift is needed to modernise intelligence work in a holistic manner, which may require radical changes in the existing intelligence culture. The Indian intelligence community has for too long fallen short of expectations and now is the time to remedy the lacunae.