Extending Intelligence Overwatch: IB Chief Expands Operational Jurisdiction, Reading Through Security Lense.

As G-20 is scheduled for next month and New Delhi' seems to be in the crosshairs of multiple security complexities, both internal and external, the Intelligence Bureau director Tapan Deka on Sunday ordered the re-distribution of work among the top chain of command in the Intelligence Bureau. The redistribution work involved a few changes in the group and extended operational jurisdiction of Special and Additional Directors of the Intelligence Bureau. Such exercise a month before G-20 and under the backdrop of a sensitive security environment is perhaps indicative of cultivating ground zero intelligence and increasing the scope of Intelligence operations. Though it could have been seen as a normal administrative order from the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, given the background of the current environment, it would be incorrect to read this as administrative development, rather, it should be read from the strategic and operational point of view. If reading from such a perspective follows, then according to experts, this development in Intelligence Bureau will enhance IB's capability of collective and offensive intel operations at the domestic front in the coming one or two months. Though some top sources argue about manpower issues in the Intelligence Bureau but the present strength at the top level is sufficient, and with extension of operational jurisdiction, the problem, even if exits, would be addressed. Interestingly, this expansion also gives a smell of the Intelligence Bureau adopting some foreign Intelligence agency operational pattern like the FBI and CIA, where these agencies prefer to increase their intel overreach either through the increasing presence or through tech resources. Such practices from India's domestic Intel agency will surely bolster not only the domestic security blanket but will improve inter-agency coordination between IB and R&AW.