If you wish to join the nation’s most prestigious job and you have no craving for fame and recognition, then only you can become a RAW officer. To get into the most sensitive and secretive department of the nation, one needs to remain hardcore dedicated. They should be up for any rigorous job in any situation. Any sacrifice and to stay calm in the toughest of the situation is what makes RAW unique. To put it in simple words there is no direct way to join RAW (at least as of now.) from recent years they started recruiting candidates directly from universities and colleges.
Why there is no direct way of joining RAW?
Raw is one of the most sensitive organizations in the nation. It deals with issues that are directly related to the safety and security of India. So having a commission for direct recruiting candidates will put the organization and the countries well being at risk. So is there no way to join the research and analysis wing? Well, of course, there is, but the process is lengthy, and that is not a cake-walk. But before diving into that, let’s have an overview of the organization.
History
During the period of British Raj in the year 1933, the British government established an intelligence wing – Intelligence Bureau. Before the Second World War, they were able to sense the tension going on in world politics. Hence, the Indian borders, and the British emperor needed and an intelligence department gathering on information about the rival countries. After the independence of India in 1947, Sanjeevi Pillai took over as the first Indian director of the intelligence bureau. Due to a lack of trained officials, the department got weakened. However, Sanjeevi Pillai tried to run the bureau on the M15 lines. In 1962 during the Sino-Indian war, the intelligence bureau’s efficiency came under question, as they were ineffective. Later in 1965, during the Indo-Pakistan war, the importance of an intelligence department increased. Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, decided to establish a fully dedicated foreign intelligence agency that will keep the government update on different political, armed forces, and weaponry activities of foreign countries.
Establishing RAW
In the year 1968, the Indian government took a full-fledged initiative to start India’s first intelligence department separately that will deal with foreign affairs and internal security. Hence, the research and analysis wing came into the picture. The deputy director of the intelligence bureau Mr. K. N. Kao made a blueprint of the organization about its mission, vision, agendas, work arena, and responsibilities.
What are the objectives of RAW?
1. Gathering foreign intelligence
Foreign intelligence is about dealing with foreign affairs. Keeping updates, and analyzing their social-economical and political scenario is one of the chief goals of RAW. Collecting these data helps them to mold and influence international situations to a great extent. These data are not accessible that easily and not available for the common man. The on-field agents of RAW collect this information through hard work of several years, sacrificing their comfort and even identity, staying far away from home, and sometimes without even connecting to their families.
2. Engaging in counter-terrorism
Terrorism is a big issue in the world currently. Several terrorist groups are actively working in some specific countries. Especially in the middle Asian countries, their activities are at their peak. Some of the terrorist groups run a country. They have their own set of rules. India is a south Asian country hence surrounded by the world’s most terror causing countries. The borders and the control lines are always under sharp scrutiny of the Indian armed forces. But not only them, but the research and analysis wing of the country also ensures the safety and security of the country to a great extent. The RAW officials are mostly active in the information gathering and finding out terror cells or about any conspiracy setting up against the nation. The officials find it out and then create the counter-attack. The execution is only under the department of Indian armed forces.
3. Promoting countering-proliferation
Proliferation is another issue that RAW deals on. Here proliferation means the growth and spread of weapons like conventional weapons, weapons of mass destruction, etc. Weapon controlling is an important measure taken by most of the countries to maintain peace internally and externally too. But countries doing proliferation of weapons are not less in number. RAW keeps track of such incidents, especially of its enemies, or of the countries that may become a troublemaker in future. They create pressure on such countries about counter-proliferation, internationally by joining hands with alliances or by making new alliances.
4. Advising Indian policymakers
India is the largest democracy in the world. A country with such a large population and diverse population living successfully in a democracy is made possible only through the policies that authorities make. These policies totally focus on the needs and demands of the Indian people. But other than inter-country policies, there are foreign policies too. Policies about importing and exporting, taxation on the products, the benefits for different countries based on their relationship with us play a critical role in international politics. The research and analysis wing of India makes such policies that will create goodwill with other countries and creates a strong position for India in international politics.
5. Advancing India’s foreign strategies interests
Making policies internally and internationally helps in advancing India’s foreign policies. Today Indian has a good relationship with almost every big country with great power. Making alliances and standing by them in tough times is what foreign strategies are all about. RAW is the chief advisory for the Indian government on making such foreign strategies. Through business deals or buying some missiles and weaponry from countries, everything comes under the strategy. Even a visit to a country for making goodwill also comes under this section. RAW keeps the government updated on the dynamics of international relationships. From friendship to dispute, everything brings in a consequence for the nation, and according to that, only our strategies change.
6. Security of India’s nuclear program
Nuclear power and weapon have been the chief concern of every developing country in the world. The ruling agenda of RAW is to collecting aggressive intelligence by espionage, psychological warfare, subversion, sabotage, and assassinations. They keep contact with different intelligence agencies of several countries like FSB (Russia), CIS, M16, NDS, Afghan agency, Israel agency, etc. With active collaboration and joint ventures, RAW has been active in operating and obtaining information. The main focus of RAW has been Pakistan’s nuclear program and safeguarding India’s nuclear program. They also operate from third countries like Afghanistan, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and Singapore.
An overview of the organization:
Headquarters: The RAW headquarters is in New Delhi. Chief: the chief of RAW is Samant Goel. He is designated secretary in the cabinet secretariat under the direct command of the prime minister. The full form of RAW is Research and analysis wing. It is a wing of the cabinet secretariat, not an agency. They are not answerable to the parliament of India on any issue. Also, it is out of the reach of the Right to Information act. So now you know how thrilling and prestigious this intelligence wing is, and the urge you had to join it increased several times. It’s not about the fame or recognition you should expect from the job but the satisfaction or the pride you will contain in your heart. Let’s dive into the procedure of joining in the research and analysis wing.
How to join RAW?
In the beginning, RAW started as a small organization with a few hundred employees. But now is it an organization with thousands of employees as officers and in-field personnel. Back then, they used to recruit officers directly from the external wing of the intelligence bureau, civil services group A officers, armed forces, or the police force.
Later they had to expand their family more, so RAW started to recruit employees directly from colleges and universities. However, this led them to allegations regarding nepotism and favoritism in appointments. So in 1983, they started their service cadre – The Research and Analysis Service (RAS) to select talents from the creamy layer of Group A Civil Services, under the central staffing scheme.
If you look at the history of RAW, from the beginning, they recruited the most number of officers from the Indian police service and Indian revenue service. The selected candidates undergo a foundation course at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. After the course ends, RAW conducts a campus interview, and through some psychological tests along with a series of tests and interviews, they induct candidates into RAW.
The aspirants have a lien period of one year to work in RAW. In this one year, they go through several pieces of training about the life and work profile of RAW officials. During this time, the candidates can go back into their parent service if they wish to.
A Delhi based security think tank institute analyzed that RAW suffers from the tail-end syndrome, which means more candidates from the bottom of the list of the qualifying candidates were joining the service in RAW than the candidates from the top of the list. The officer from armed forces and civil defense service officers had to leave their cadre permanently to join the research and analysis service.According to the recent reports, it is clear that an officer can go back to join his parent service after a few years of service in the RAW. Most of the officers in RAW are from IPS, and other personnel is from the IRS and IFS. Other them the civil servants, RAW also recruits several linguistic and other experts in various fields. RAW has its own set of rules the officers and employees work under the service condition by the Research and analysis wing (recruitment, cadre, and service) rules, 1975.
To simplify, RAW does not appoint candidates directly through examination or interviews. They only recruit candidates from different government departments in Indian. Officers that have a good work profile in their respective field and have a good impression on their department are on the priority list of RAW. So currently, the only way to join RAW after graduation or after 12th standard is to join any of the above mentioned civil service department and do good in your respective fields. But you can join the intelligence bureau through a direct written examination. It can be your first step toward RAW, and as this is also an intelligence department so you will get a taste of your dream job too.
How to join IB?
Educational qualification: the minimum required educational qualification to join IB, CBI, or RAW is that the candidates must be a graduate from a recognized university with a minimum of 50 percent marks in aggregate. Age: the minimum age of the candidate must be 18 years, and the maximum age limit is 27 years. The candidates can claim age relaxation as per the govt rules. However, the age relaxation granted is as follows: SC/ST: 5 years OBC: 3 years Departmental Candidates: 13 years (with more than 3 years of service) Women (widows, divorced women & women judicially separated from their husbands & not remarried): 8 years (for General), 13 Years (SC/ST) Meritorious Sports persons: 5 years Other Requirements: The candidate must have computer proficiency and of Indian nationality. Examination pattern: the examination for IB recruitment has two tires. The tire I examination for IB ACIO is of 100 marks comprising questions on general awareness, quantitive aptitude, logical ability, and English language. It is a one-hour examination. The tire II examination is a one-hour examination with 50 marks on essay writing and English comprehension and précis writing. The examination pattern of IB security assistant is a two hours examination of 100 marks comprising the same subjects as mentioned above in tire I. The tire II examination is of one hour for 50 marks on the translation of a passage of 500 words from local language to English and spoken ability. The candidates who qualify in both stages can approach the interview.
