Govt reconstitutes National Security Advisory Board

Ajay Banerjee

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 8

Almost 20 months after the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) was disbanded, it has been reconstituted and will now be headed by a former foreign services officer experienced in Indo-Russian ties.

Former Indian Ambassador to Russia PS Raghavan will be the chairperson of the board, which, for now, has four members and more can be added, sources said. The NSAB had not been reconstituted since January 2015.

The newly recast NSAB started functioning on October 1 from its office in New Delhi. Raghavan, a 1979-batch Indian Foreign Services officer, has served in Russia in various capacities. He was the second secretary at the Indian Embassy in Moscow in 1981-82 and was appointed Indian Ambassador to Russia in October 2013.

The four-member team has domain experts like those on China and the US. The other three members of the board are Lt Gen SL Narsimhan (retd), former defence attaché to China; Avdesh Mathur, former special secretary, RAW; Prof Bimal Patel of Gujarat National Law University.

The first NSAB was constituted in December 1998 with national security doyen K Subrahmanyam as its chairperson. The NSAB normally meets at least once a month. Its principal function is to undertake long-term analysis of and provide perspectives on issues of national security. It reports to the National Security Council headed by the PM.

The current agenda of the board include neighbourhood strategy, western neighbourhood, border management, maritime security, internal security, strategic industries and technology, strategic communications.