Directorate General of Security (India)
The Directorate General of Security is an organisation of covert operations under India's Cabinet Secretariat. It is one of the four legally defined intelligence organisations of India and listed in the Schedule of the Intelligence Organisations Act, 1985, the other three being I.B., R&AW and NTRO. Since 1971, the Secretary, Research and Analysis Wing has usually held the post of Director General. This organisation used to be composed of Special Service Bureau, Aviation Research Centre, Special Frontier Force and Chief Inspectorate of Armaments. Since the shifting of SSB and CIOA to the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2001, DGS consists of ARC and SFF only. The Special Group, a non-Tibetan and Sarsawa-based unit of SFF, is also a DGS component.
Early history
In the wake of the Sino-Indian War of 1962, the Intelligence Bureau raised four new organisations in 1962-63: Indo-Tibetan Border Police, SFF, SSB and ARC. Of these four, only ITBP was an open force; one of the joint directors of IB, Sardar Balbir Singh, became its founder chief, while still retaining his post in the IB. The other three organisations were covert. Of these, SFF and ARC were set up with CIA help, as a part of CIA Tibetan program. To monitor these two, a CIA-IB joint operations centre was set up in November 1963 and was given the name, Special Centre. When B. N. Mullik, Director of the Intelligence Bureau retired in October 1964, he was re-employed to oversee these covert operations. His position got formalised in February 1965 as Director General of Security. The DGS was established in the Prime Minister's Secretariat. SFF, ARC and SSB, already shifted from the Ministry of External Affairs to the Prime Minister's Secretariat on 1 January 1965, became components of this new organisation. The whole set-up was moved to the Cabinet Secretariat on 1 September 1965. Another organisation, Inspectorate of Armaments was created as a part of DGS in 1969. The DGS was declared as a force under section 45 of the Arms Act, 1959 on 21 August 1969.Organisational structure
The DGS was headed by a Director General, the post being generally held by the Secretary, R&AW. The No. 2 post was called Principal Director, who actually ran the organisation. Below him, there were five set-ups:- Secretariat, headed by Joint Director.
- Special Service Bureau, headed by Director. Field formations were headed by Divisional Organisers. The divisions were:
- #Manipur & Nagaland
- #Arunachal Pradesh
- #North Assam
- #North Bengal & Sikkim
- #South Bengal
- #Uttar Pradesh
- #Punjab & Himachal Pradesh
- #Jammu & Kashmir
- #Rajasthan & Gujarat
- #Shillong
- Aviation Research Centre, headed by Director. Field formations, at Charbatia, Odisha, headed by Joint Director; Doom Dooma, Assam, headed by Deputy Director; Sarsawa, Uttar Pradesh, headed by Deputy Director; Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh; Leh, Ladakh, headed by Assistant Director. Has an air base at Palam, Delhi.
- Special Frontier Force, headed by Inspector General. Field formation at Chakrata, Uttarakhand, known as Establishment 22, headed by Commandant. Another field formation at Sarsawa, Uttar Pradesh, which houses the Special Group. Battalions known as Vikas battalions.
- Chief Inspectorate of Armaments, Delhi-based, headed by Chief Inspector.
Major missions
Nanda Devi and Nanda Kot Missions
Both of these were joint covert operations of CIA and ARC. The purpose was to place a nuclear-powered telemetry relay listening device on a sufficiently high mountain to listen to Chinese radio signals. First attempt was for Mount Nanda Devi in 1965, which failed due to a severe blizzard. Second attempt was for Mount Nanda Kot in 1966, which succeeded. Team leader of the expedition was Navy Captain Mohan Singh Kohli.SSB's resistance movement in 1965
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, village volunteers, male and female, trained in armed guerrilla warfare by SSB, had participated in protecting the Indian border. The founder chief of DGS and SSB, B. N. Mullik described this in details in his 1973 article, The Motto of SSB. Mullik also wrote in that article that by 1965, a million and a half men and women had been trained throughout the border.Training of Mujib Bahini
The training of Mukti Bahini was arranged by R&AW at camps of BSF, CRPF, Assam Rifles and Rajasthan Armed Constabulary. But the members of the Mujib Bahini, drawn from Bangladesh Chhatra League, did not want anything to do with Mukti Bahini and the provisional government. So they were trained by SFF at Tandawa, near Chakrata, and by SSB, at Haflong training centre.Operation Mountain Eagle
This is the engagement SFF's Tibetan soldiers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts during the Bangladesh War, described in depth by SFF chief Sujan Singh Uban in his Phantoms of Chittagong: The "Fifth Army" in Bangladesh.SSB operations during Bangladesh War
Other than training activities, SSB also ran intelligence operations and refugee relief camps on a major scale during the Bangladesh War. As a result, Hara Nath Sarkar and Debakant Kakati, Divisional Organisers of North Bengal and North Assam Divisions, respectively, were awarded the President's Police Medal for Meritorious Service.Raising the Special Group
This force was raised in 1981, under command of IG, SFF. This unit, unlike Tibetan refugees, is composed entirely of deputationists from the Army. By 1984, it had become the primary counter-terrorism force of India. This force was deployed in Operation Blue Star. After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the SG was given the responsibility of prime ministerial security till the raising of the Special Protection Group.Raising the National Security Guard
R. T. Nagrani, the then Principal Director, DGS, was tasked with the SG operations in the Golden Temple. After this, under advice of R. N. Kao, who had come back from retirement as Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister, the PM asked Nagrani to raise a separate force for counter-terrorism. Nagrani did it with a core group of SG operatives. This became known as the National Security Guard. Nagrani became its first DG, while still retaining his post of Principal Director, DGS and later, DG.Operation Meghdoot
Operation Meghdoot was launched by the Indian Army in 1984 to capture the Siachen Glacier, in which SFF commandos played a pivotal role. One of the Tibetan battalions of SFF is still deployed there.Operation Vijay
The DGS had used SFF in the Kargil War in 1999. Earlier, ARC surveillance missions had verified presence of Pakistani troops on the Indian side with photographic evidence.Operation Snow Leopard
In the ongoing Sino-Indian border dispute, India used Tibetan components of SFF in 2020–2021 China–India skirmishes, to capture prominent hill tops south of the Pangong Tso in Ladakh on 31 August 2020 and thereafter in the Galwan River Valley conflict.Service chiefs
From 1965 to 1971, the Director General of Security was a separate post; since then the post has been held by Secretary, R&AW, except a brief interlude, when R. T. Nagrani held the post separately. After creation of the post of Principal Director, the incumbent of that post ran the organisation under the overall command of Secretary. The post of PD was shifted to the Ministry of Home Affairs on 15 January 2001 as Director General, SSB; when SSB and CIOA were moved. Thereafter, the post of Director, ARC was raised from Additional Secretary to Special Secretary level with the concomitant role of Head of Department, SFF.Director General (Security)
| Sr No. | Name | From | Till | Remarks |
| 1 | B. N. Mullik, IP | February 1965 | 6 May 1966 | Formerly, Director, Intelligence Bureau |
| 2 | M. M. L. Hooja, IP | 1 August 1966 | 15 January 1968 | Later, Director, Intelligence Bureau |
| 3 | Sardar Balbir Singh, IP | 1968 | 1971 | Formerly, founder IG of ITBP |
| 4 | Secretary, R&AW | 1971 | 31 January 1986 | |
| 5 | Ram Tekchand Nagrani, RAS | 31 January 1986 | 25 September 1986 | Concurrent with Director General, NSG |
| 6 | Secretary, R&AW | 26 September 1986 | December 2014 | |
| 7 | Vacant | December 2014 | March 2015 | Post was kept vacant during tenure of Arvind Saxena as Special Secretary, ARC |
| 8 | Secretary, R&AW | March 2015 | Till date |
Principal Director, DGS
Incumbents of this post ran the DGS organisation since 1974 under overall command of Secretary.| Sr No. | Name | From | Till | Remarks |
| 1 | R. N. Manickam, IPS | 30 November 1974 | 30 June 1977 | formerly, IGP, Madras State |
| 2 | Pitri Sharan Raturi, IPS | 12 July 1977 | 31 March 1979 | |
| 3 | Thiruvalanchuly Muthukrishna Ayyar Subramaniam, IPS | 31 March 1979 | 3 February 1982 | He was IB's liaison officer with CIA and USAF at Agra air base, in the initial days of ARC, before its formal creation. |
| 4 | Sudarshan Singh Bajwa, IPS | 3 February 1982 | 31 August 1982 | formerly, IGP, Haryana |
| 5 | Onkar Singh, IPS | 31 August 1982 | 31 October 1982 | |
| 6 | Ram Tekchand Nagrani, RAS | 12 September 1983 | 31 January 1986 | originally IPS. Promoted to Director General. Concurrently, founder DG of NSG |
| 7 | Ramchandar Swaminathan, RAS | 23 February 1988 | 31 July 1990 | originally IPS. Later, Vice-President, Chennai Centre for China Studies |
| 8 | Hari Baboo Johri, IPS | 31 July 1990 | 30 April 1991 | |
| 9 | Natesan Narasimhan, RAS | 27 May 1991 | 31 July 1991 | originally IPS. Promoted to DG and Secretary |
| 10 | A. P. Verma, RAS | 7 October 1991 | 31 October 1991 | originally IPS |
| 11 | N. Natarajan, IPS | 1 November 1991 | 31 December 1992 | |
| 12 | Kalyan Kumar Mitra, RAS | 30 April 1993 | 28 February 1995 | originally IPS. |
| 13 | S. Gopal, RAS | 1 March 1995 | 29 September 1996 | originally IPS. Later, Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee Visiting Chair Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies. Currently member of the Constitutional Conduct Group, a group of former civil servants, with the motto of Speaking Truth to Power. |
| 14 | Rajendra Mohan, IPS | 30 September 1996 | 30 September 1997 | |
| 15 | Nachhattar Singh Sandhu, IPS | 26 October 1999 | 15 January 2001 | re-designated as Director General, SSB |
Special Secretary, ARC
| Sr No. | Name | From | Till | Remarks |
| 1 | Ravinder Singh Bedi, RAS | 2001 | 2003 | originally of the Army, then RAS-1966. Later, founder Chairman of NTRO |
| 2 | Amar Bhushan, RAS | 2003 | 31 January 2005 | originally IPS. Also had charge of Administration and Counter-Intelligence & Security wings of R&AW. During his tenure as head of CIS, Rabinder Singh, a joint secretary in R&AW, managed to defect to the USA. Also known as a thriller writer, has authored The Spymaster series and other novels. |
| 3 | Ajai Singh, RAS | 2005 | 2008 | originally IPS |
| 4 | Sanjeev Kumar Tripathi, RAS | 2008 | 30 December 2010 | originally IPS. Promoted to Secretary, R&AW and DG |
| 5 | Avadhesh Behari Mathur, IPS | December 2010 | December 2011 | Promoted to Secretary. Later, UNMIK Head of Office, Mitrovica, Kosovo, Member, National Security Advisory Board and emeritus resource faculty, Rashtriya Raksha University |
| 6 | Krishan Varma, RAS | December 2011 | 30 September 2012 | later, emeritus resource faculty, Rashtriya Raksha University, member, Advisory Council, Global Counter Terrorism Council, Impulse Model Policy Advisor India to the Impulse NGO Network, member, Board of Advisors, Usanas Foundation and Trustee, Foundation for Non-violent Alternatives. |
| 7 | Amitabh Mathur, RAS | 2012 | 2014 | originally IPS. Later, Special Adviser, Ministry of Home Affairs, and founding partner of DeepStrat LLP, a New Delhi-based think tank and strategic consultancy. Currently member of the Constitutional Conduct Group, a group of former civil servants, with the motto of Speaking Truth to Power. |
| 8 | Arvind Saxena, RAS | December 2014 | May 2015 | originally IPoS. Later, Chairman, UPSC |
| 9 | Anil Kumar Dhasmana, IPS | 2015 | 31 December 2016 | Promoted to Secretary and DG. Later, Chairman, NTRO |
| 10 | Kumaresan Ilango, RAS | 2017 | 28 February 2019 | originally IPS. Was recalled as station chief of R&AW from Colombo in 2015 amid accusation of meddling in the 2015 Sri Lanka presidential election. |
| 11 | R. Kumar, RAS | 2019 | 30 November 2020 | originally IA&AS |
| 12 | Rajesh Mishra, IPoS | 2020 | 28 February 2021 | |
| 13 | Maruti Narayan Sridhar Rao, IPoS | 2021 | 31 October 2022 |
Rank structure
| Level of Pay Matrix | Designations |
| 17 | Director General |
| 17 | Director, ARC |
| 15 | Adviser, Adviser, ARC |
| 14 | Operations Manager, ARC ; Joint Director, ARC; Inspector General, SFF |
| 13A | Chief Pilot, ARC ; Commandant, Establishment 22, SFF; Deputy Director, SFF |
| 13 | Deputy Director, ARC |
| 12A | Assistant Director, SFF |
| 12 | Joint Deputy Director, ARC |
| 11 | Assistant Director, ARC; Technical Officer, ARC |
| 10 | Senior Field Officer, ARC/SFF; Assistant Technical Officer, ARC |
| 8 | Field Officer, ARC/SFF |
| 6 | Deputy Field Officer, ARC/SFF |
| 5 | Assistant Field Officer, ARC/SFF |
| 4 | Senior Field Assistant, ARC/SFF |
| 3 | Field Assistant, ARC/SFF |
Note: Combatised personnel of SFF have pay parity with the Army, vide Cabinet Secretariat Order dated 16.10.2009; pension & pensionary
benefits to SFF personnel are also at par with Indian Army for Group 'Y' 'Personnel Below Officer Rank'. In addition, army personnel on deputation to Special Group of SFF get special force allowance and para pay.