Indian Police Services (IPS) officer Ravi Sinha has been appointed as the next chief of external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Sinha is a 1988-batch Chhattisgarh-cadre officer. He will replace the current RAW chief Samant Goel, who will complete his tenure on June 30.
Goel was appointed as the chief of RAW in 2019 and received two extensions of one year each in 2021 and 2022. The PTI noted that he is only the third RAW chief to have had a tenure of over three years.
Here we explain what's RAW, what it's mandate, and what we know about new RAW chief Sinha.
What do we know about Ravi Sinha?
Ravi Sinha is a 1988-batch Chhattisgarh-cadre IPS officer.
The formal designation of the RAW chief is Secretary, Research and Analysis Wing (Secretar-R) in the Cabinet Secretariat.
The PTI reported that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved Sinha's appointment as Secretary, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for a tenure of two years, the order said.
Sinha, along with a few other officers, was considered to be among the front-runners to be the RAW chief.
Last year, The Print reported that Sridhar Rao, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief SK Jaiswal, Sinha were among the front-runners to be RAW chief.
Sinha is currently serving as Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat. This is the number two position in RAW.
The PTI reported that Sinha is widely respected in the intelligence community for his professional competence and an expert on India's neighbouring countries. He has been in RAW for over two decades.
The NDTV reported that Sinha is known to be a tech-savvy officer.
"In R&AW, Ravi Sinha has been attributed with infusing modern technology in the field of intelligence collection. Government sources said that this would enable him to integrate technological and human intelligence dimensions to work together to address the challenges of our times," reported NDTV.
The PTI reported that, besides the neighbourhood, Sinha is known to have a sound grip on Jammu and Kashmir, Northeast, Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas where he has severed at different points in time. The LWE is a phrase formally used for Maoist/Naxalite violence.
What's RAW, Indian external intelligence agency?
The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is India's external intelligence agency.
The RAW was founded in 1968 after a need of a separate agency focussed on external intelligence matters was felt. Earlier, external intelligence was also dealt with by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which today looks at domestic intelligence.
The RAW chief has the formal designation of Secretary-R at the Cabinet Secretariat and reports to the Cabinet Secretariat, who reports to the Prime Minister of India.
Unlike foreign countries, like the United States, the Indian intelligence agencies, including RAW, do not have parliamentary oversight and are highly secretive. The chiefs barely make public appearances and little is known about them, except for some legendary chiefs like RAW founder RN Kao or some well-known ones like Vikram Sood or AS Dulat.
