IB (Intelligence Bureau)-all you need to know

Hello aspirants,

In this series of post, we are looking at all the essential intelligence agency of or county. In this post, we will know about IB one of the elite intelligence unit of the country.

1. What is I.B?
   

• The Intelligence Bureau (IB) is India's internal intelligence agency formed in 1887 by the British Indian army.
• The objective then was to monitor Russian troop deployments in Afghanistan, fearing a Russian invasion of British India through the North-West during the late 19th century.
• The overall strength of the agency is believed to be around 25,000, with 3500-odd field agents operating in the entire country.

2. Ranks in IB

3. Formation of IB

• The Bureau comprises employees from law enforcement agencies, mostly from the Indian Police Service (IPS) or the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and the military.
• The Director of Intelligence Bureau (DIB) has always been an IPS officer.
  

4. Function of I.B

• the IB is used to garner intelligence from within India and also execute counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism tasks.
• They keep track of issues like terrorism, counter-intelligence, VIP security, threat assessment and sensitive areas.
• The Bureau comprises employees from law enforcement agencies, mostly from the Indian Police Service (IPS) or the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and the military.
• In addition to domestic intelligence responsibilities, the IB is particularly tasked with intelligence collection in border areas.
• All spheres of human activity within India and in the neighbourhood are allocated to the charter of duties of the Intelligence Bureau.
• The Bureau is also authorised to conduct wiretapping without a warrant and email spying.
• The Bureau also grants the necessary security clearances to Indian diplomats and judges before they take the oath.

5. Major operations in past

• As most of the operations are classified, not much is known about it.
• The IB has had mixed success in counter-terrorism. It was reported in 2008 that the IB had been successful in busting terror modules.
• It alerted the police before the Hyderabad blasts and gave repeated warnings of a possible attack on Mumbai through the sea before the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Stay tuned to DDE for more.