What are the internal security challenges being faced by India? Give out the role of Central Intelligence…

Question

What are the internal security challenges being faced by India? Give out the role of Central Intelligence and Investigative Agencies tasked to counter such threats.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

India faces cross-border terrorism, residual Left Wing Extremism, Northeast ethnic strife and rising cyber and narco-terror threats, countered by a chain of central agencies that collect, fuse, investigate and choke funds. The NIA, created after 26/11, had 150 convictions in 157 concluded trials by March 2025.

**Introduction**

The Pahalgam attack (2025), Manipur's ethnic violence since 2023 and the AIIMS ransomware breach (2022) show terror, identity conflict and cyber attack converging, which India counters through layered central agencies.

**Internal Security Challenges Facing India**

1. **Cross-border terrorism**: Pakistan's proxy war sustains infiltration and targeted killings in Jammu and Kashmir, as Pahalgam showed.
2. **LWE and the Northeast**: LWE incidents fell 52% between 2013 and 2024 (MHA), yet the Chhattisgarh core endures, and Manipur's conflict, fed by the porous Myanmar border, keeps the Northeast fragile.
3. **Cyber and narco-terror**: Cybercrime rose 17.9% to 1,01,928 cases in 2024 (NCRB), and drones drop drugs and arms into Punjab.

**Role of Central Intelligence and Investigative Agencies**

SKETCH: flow | From Threat to Deterrence
- Collect: IB, R&AW, NTRO
- Fuse: MAC, NATGRID
- Investigate: NIA, CBI, NCB
- Choke funds: ED, FIU-IND
- Prosecute and deter

1. **Intelligence collection**: The IB covers internal and counter-intelligence and runs the Multi-Agency Centre (2001); R&AW tracks handlers abroad and the NTRO supplies technical intelligence.
2. **NIA as federal investigator**: Created after 26/11 and widened in 2019 to cyber-terrorism and trafficking, it had 150 convictions in 157 concluded trials by March 2025 (MHA).
3. **Money and cyber choke points**: The ED under the PMLA, FIU-IND and the NCB cut terror finance, while CERT-In and the I4C coordinate cyber response.

**Way Forward**

1. **Charter and oversight**: Give IB and R&AW a statutory mandate with parliamentary oversight.
2. **Federal fusion and capacity**: Build a consensual counter-terror hub with the states, make NATGRID fully operational and implement the Prakash Singh (2006) police reforms.

**Conclusion**

With collection, fusion, investigation and financial tracking working as one chain, India can secure comprehensive national security and the strong institutions of SDG 16.

What are the internal security challenges being faced by India? Give out the role of Central Intelligence and Investigative Agencies tasked to counter such threats.

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