The National Security Advisor (NSA) is a powerful institution and senior official in the executive branch of the Government of India, serving as the chief advisor to the Prime Minister on national security policy and strategic affairs. The post was formally created on 19 November 1998 by the government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This institutionalisation was a response to the lack of a dedicated, integrated national security architecture, a need that became acute following India’s Pokhran-II nuclear tests in May 1998. The first NSA was Brajesh Mishra.
The NSA’s primary mechanism is to advise the Prime Minister on all matters relating to internal and external threats and opportunities. The NSA coordinates and presents intelligence inputs from agencies like the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to the Prime Minister. The NSA is the Secretary of the National Security Council (NSC), the apex advisory body chaired by the Prime Minister, and directly heads the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), which functions as the permanent administrative engine. The NSA also chairs the Strategic Policy Group (SPG), the principal forum for inter-ministerial coordination.
The NSA is intrinsically connected to the three-tiered national security structure, which includes the NSC, the SPG, and the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB). The NSA is also a key member of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which is the formal decision-making authority on security matters. A notable change occurred in 2004 when the office was briefly split into two roles (foreign and internal security), but it was fused back into a single full-time position in 2005. More recently, the NSA was made the chairperson of the Defence Planning Committee created in 2018.