Introducing: Vikram Sood
Vikram Sood is the former head of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s foreign intelligence service. In this interview, he answered questions from the Indian Century Roundtable’s Vikram Malkani about his own background and about the major security challenges faced by India today. Here’s what he had to say.
Tell us about your early years – which city you were born in, where you were brought up and your academic and other interests during your early years.
I was born and brought up in New Delhi, through school and college. My schooling was at St Columba’s School New Delhi, 1949-59.
Tell us which academic qualifications you hold, and from which universities? What were the years in which you secured them?
I hold Bachelor of Arts Economics (Honours) and Master of Arts in Economics, 1960-1965 from St Stephen’s College, Delhi University.
What attracted you to your academic and initial professional interests?
Nothing spectacular except that I wanted to have a shot at the Civil Services Entrance exam, which I did in 1965.
What led to the transition to Intelligence?
I joined the Civil Service in 1966, and a few years later the new intelligence organisation for external intelligence, Research and Analysis Wing, was formed. They were looking for talent from within the civil service. The nature of the work attracted me. I was interviewed and was selected in 1972, retiring in March 2003 as the head of the organisation.
In the world of espionage, what do you think are/should be India’s highest priorities?
The global situation has become very dynamic and extremely uncertain in an era of constant military wars – resource wars, economic and trade wars, information wars, water wars, to name a few. These are threats, apart from the usual political, economic and military ones. India has two hostile nuclear weapon states as neighbours. Pakistan has waged a constant war of Islamic terrorism against India under a nuclear umbrella while China has kept the border dispute alive. These two aspects have slowed down Indian growth.
What are India’s biggest challenges in becoming a more secure nation, and how can it surmount those?
We live in an age where global power equations are beginning to change and there is bound to be competition between U.S. the existing superpower, and China, the challenger, while other powers like Russia cannot be written off. India too has its ambitions. The 21st-century wars in the Northern Hemisphere reveal these rivalries. Besides, a rising power in search of markets and resources as well as influence, inevitably faces opposition or obstacles from rivals and those that are described as friends, too.
What are some of the projects you have worked on since retiring from government service?
After retiring from the Government of India, I joined Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and have been with them since 2005. The ORF is an independent policy think tank in New Delhi. I have contributed articles on security, international relations to various newspapers and journals, and chapters for different books for several years. I have authored two books, The Unending Game-A former R&AW Chief’s Insights into Espionage (Penguin 2018) and The Ultimate Goal- A Former R&AW Chief Deconstructs How Nations Construct Narratives (HarperCollins 2020).
