NSAB chairman Alok Joshi urges enhanced intelligence sharing among government agencies to break agency silos

Time of India

06-06-2025

NSAB chairman Alok Joshi urges enhanced intelligence sharing among government agencies to break agency silos
GANDHINAGAR: National Security Advisory Board chairman Alok Joshi on Thursday emphasised the need for intelligence sharing among govt agencies for better results and asserted that one of the challenges agencies face is breaking the silos in which they operate.
Joshi, who was addressing delegates at the 'Police Technology Summit 2025' at Rashtriya Raksha University in Gandhinagar, headed the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), apex level agencies in the country's intelligence mechanism, before helming NSAB.
"India stands at a pivotal moment where technology can revolutionize law enforcement. However, success of this revolution depends on collecting data and analysing it, sharing it swiftly within and across agencies and recalibrating systems through feedback, all the while placing the human factor at the heart of our efforts," Joshi said in his address.
"One of the challenges that India is facing is breaking the silos without compromising on the principle of 'need to know'. I think that is something which is central to our system and it will not go away," the retired IPS officer said.
National Security Advisory Board chairman Alok Joshi gave an example of NTRO having refused to share an intelligence input when he was heading RAW. "When I was heading the RAW, we did an operation in the adversary country and the operation was a success, and we knew exactly what was going to be the pushback.
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Security levels were raised and precautions were taken," said Joshi. At that time, NTRO gave an input to RAW, indicating that there was "something brewing", Joshi said.
"So I reached out to the then chairman of NTRO and requested him to show me the excerpts of that intercept. Unfortunately, he took a different opinion. A view was taken that they cannot show the intercept because of certain security reasons. That was their assessment," he said.
"But this thing stuck in my mind. Within three months, I was in NTRO (as chief). After I settled, the first thing I did was to call for that file. And believe me, if the contents of that message had been shown to me, it would have been a different story. After all, we were both heading security organizations," Joshi said.
Asserting that analysing and operationalising intelligence is equally important, Joshi said all officials must remember that someone is the consumer of the information they are receiving.
"What would you expect the consumer to do with that information? I think this is something that has to be ingrained in the system, both at the time of collection, and at the time of dissemination," he said. He said no intelligence is complete without feedback, but it is equally difficult to get feedback on the input shared with other agencies.
"It is very difficult, but as a producer, it is your duty to chase it. Ensure that you get feedback or have a relationship with that organization where you have the trust and the confidence built in to give you that feedback," he added.
During his address, Joshi also said the govt should share the development cost incurred by entrepreneurs building indigenous technologies. "If you want to strengthen your indigenous effort, you have to pay the cost for it.
The development cost has to be shared by the govt. At NSAB, we have started taking a re-look at the procurement process, especially for policing and security agencies. It is necessary because you can't have a no cost-no commitment principle. Working in this kind of environment, it will just not work. It will not encourage the industry," he stressed.
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