The Centre on Saturday appointed senior IPS officer Parag Jain, credited with providing intelligence support that enabled precision missile strikes on terror infrastructures during Operation Sindoor, as the new chief of the country’s external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
He is currently heading the RAW’s Aviation Research Centre (ARC), which played a vital role in the high-stakes Operation Sindoor by collecting intelligence on the Pakistani armed forces.
ARC oversees aerial surveillance and related operations, including monitoring of borders and imagery intelligence (IMINT) and signals intelligence (SIGINT), which refers to electronic transmissions that can be collected by ships, planes, ground sites, or satellites.
Known within intelligence circles as a “super sleuth” and “neighbourhood specialist”, Jain has exceptional expertise in integrating both human intelligence (HUMINT) and technical intelligence (TECHINT), sources said.
India hit nine terror camps, including the headquarters of banned terror outfits Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba, on May 7. The missile strikes were guided by pinpointed intelligence gathered by a team led by Jain, officials said.
A 1989-batch IPS officer of Punjab cadre, Jain has served in the RAW for almost two decades and will take charge as its new chief on July 1 for a fixed term of two years. He will succeed Ravi Sinha who is set to complete his tenure on June 30.
“Jain has extensively handled the Pakistan desk with tenures in Jammu and Kashmir during the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. He has also served in Indian Missions in Sri Lanka and Canada. During his tenure in Canada, he monitored Khalistani terror modules operating from there,” said a government official.
He has extensive experience in addressing neighbourhood challenges and issues related to Khalistani terror groups, the
official added.
Jain has held several key roles throughout his career. He was promoted to the rank of director-general of police (DGP) in Punjab on January 1, 2021, though he was then serving on central deputation.