NSA Doval replaces cabinet secy as head of ‘strategic policy group’

New Delhi:

National security advisor Ajit Doval has replaced cabinet secretary as the head of the Strategic Policy Group (SPG), a mechanism first notified in April 1999 to assist the National Security Council (NSC) in strategising on matters dealing with external, internal and economic security of the country.


While the 1999 notification constituting SPG and defining its role and functions had specified the cabinet secretary as its chairperson, the government, through a notification on September 11 and published in the gazette on October 8, made a partial modification, listing the NSA as its chairman.

While SPG notified in 1999 was a 16-member body, the new notification makes it a 18-member body with cabinet secretary and vice-chairman of Niti Aayog as new members. Other members that continue to be part of SPG include Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, RBI governor, secretaries of external affairs, home, defence, finance, defence production, revenue, atomic energy, space.

The reconstitution of SPG puts NSA at the top of the national security set-up, coming close on the heels of a decision to set up the defence planning committee, a new strategic think-tank under chairmanship of NSA to formulate national military and security strategy and oversee defence acquisitions from abroad.

The NSC and SPG were set up on the recommendations of a task force formed in April 1998 under former Planning Commission deputy chairman K C Pant. Accepting the recommendations, the government in 1999 constituted the National Security Council to deal with all subjects relating to external security environment and threat scenario.