Does R&AW handle Kashmir street cases?

No. Internal collection is IB and State agencies. R&AW’s brief is foreign intelligence, including overseas support to a threat.

Can NIA replace State police?

No. It takes scheduled national-security cases. Ordinary law and order stays with the State.

What are the internal security challenges being faced by India? Give out the

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Challenges include terrorism, left-wing extremism, some north-east groups, communal violence, drugs, fake currency, cyber crime, and borders. The Intelligence Bureau is the Union internal intelligence service. Research and Analysis Wing is external intelligence; it is not India’s domestic investigator. NIA takes scheduled terror cases; CBI takes specified special and corruption cases; ED follows the money under PMLA. NTRO is a technical intelligence organisation supporting the others.

Model answer

Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.

Introduction

India’s internal security problems are several, not one insurgency. They include terrorism, left-wing extremism, some remaining north-east armed groups, communal and caste violence, drugs, fake currency, cyber crime, and coastal and border crime. Central intelligence and investigative agencies do not replace State police. They supply the all-India picture and the specialised case.

Body

Internal security challenges

Pakistan-linked and other terrorism, including in Jammu and Kashmir, and modules in hinterland cities.
Left-wing extremism in the central Indian forest belt, reduced but not gone.
North-east insurgency remnants, extortion, and arms routes; much quieter than two decades ago, still live in pockets.
Communal, separatist, and organised street violence that can scale into internal disorder.
Narcotics, arms, and fake Indian currency as both crime and terror logistics.
Cyber attacks, critical-infrastructure probes, and online radicalisation.
Coastal and border infiltration, including drones.

Role of central agencies

Intelligence Bureau (IB): the Union’s internal intelligence service. It collects and assesses threats inside India, supports the Ministry of Home Affairs, and feeds the Multi-Agency Centre. It is not a prosecution agency.
Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW): India’s external intelligence service. It is not the lead internal-security police. It matters to internal security only where a threat is planned or supported from abroad; mention it as the foreign-intelligence counterpart, not as a domestic investigator.
National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO): technical and satellite/signals support to intelligence; a capability agency, not a street force.
National Investigation Agency (NIA): statutory investigator and prosecutor of scheduled terror and related national-security offences across States after the 2008 law (later widened).
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI): investigates specified corruption, special crimes, and some cases with inter-State or international character, usually with State consent except where law says otherwise. It is a police agency under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, not a spy service.
Enforcement Directorate (ED): enforces Prevention of Money Laundering Act and foreign-exchange law. In internal security it follows terror finance and proceeds of crime, not the bomb itself.
Coordination sits in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Multi-Agency Centre, and, for money trails, Financial Intelligence Unit – India. State police and central armed police remain the mass of the response.

Flow diagram

Conclusion

Internal security is terrorism, extremism, communal violence, drugs, cyber and borders. IB leads internal intelligence; R&AW is external and should not be described as a domestic police. NIA, CBI and ED investigate terror, special crime and dirty money; NTRO supplies technical take. None of them replaces the State police.

Quick related

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Give out the major sources of terror funding in India and efforts being made to curtail these sources. In the light of this, also discuss the aim and objective of the ' No Money for Terror [NMFT]' Conference recently held at New Delhi in November 2022.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2023 · Q20). View answer →
Does R&AW handle Kashmir street cases?

No. Internal collection is IB and State agencies. R&AW’s brief is foreign intelligence, including overseas support to a threat.
Can NIA replace State police?

No. It takes scheduled national-security cases. Ordinary law and order stays with the State.

Same topic · past papers

UPSC has asked this before

These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.

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.