Days after his retirement as the chief of India’s external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Alok Joshi has been appointed as the new chairman of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO). Joshi will take over as OSD next week, and officially as chairman on April 30.
Joshi, a Haryana cadre IPS officer of the 1976 batch, has served in the Intelligence Bureau and RAW for years. Joshi is a specialist on the neighbourhood, and has served as the RAW station chief in Nepal, and handled counter terrorism.
National Security Advisor, AK Doval, is understood to have been impressed with Joshi, and strongly pitched for his appointment. There is a precedent to Joshi’s appointment. Another former RAW chief, KC Verma, was picked as the NTRO chief by the previous UPA government in 2010.
The NTRO is the special technical intelligence gathering branch of the government.