 | |
| Abbreviation | VIF |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2009 |
| Founder | Ajit Doval [1] |
| Type | Public policy think tank |
| Headquarters | 3,San Martin Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021 |
| Location |
|
Chairperson | Swaminathan Gurumurthy |
Vice Chaiperson | Satish Chandra |
Director | Arvind Gupta |
Parent organization | Vivekananda Kendra |
| Website | www |
| Part of a series on |
| Conservatism |
|---|
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The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) is an Indian public policy think-tank. It is considered to be aligned to right-of-centre in its policies. [2] [3]
The Vivekananda International Foundation describes itself as an "independent, non-partisan institution that promotes quality research and in-depth studies." The Foundation was established in December 2009, at a site in New Delhi's Chanakyapuri allotted by the P. V. Narasimha Rao government in 1993. Ajit Doval, who retired as the director of the Intelligence Bureau in 2005, became its founder Director. [1] The Foundation made news in 2011–2012 when it was said to be instrumental in bringing together Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, along with Baba Ramdev, to form the 'Team Anna'. [4]
In 2014, its director Ajit Doval was appointed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as India's National Security Advisor. The Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra and the Additional Principal Secretary P. K. Mishra were also recruited from the Foundation's staff. [5] The Prime Minister Modi is said to have been following the Foundation for some time and is impressed with its work. [6]
The Foundation states that it has no formal organisational links with the RSS or the Bharatiya Janata Party. However, commentators have found Hindu nationalist ideas in several of its publications. [4] The news magazine Tehelka has claimed that the Foundation supplied the intellectual inputs for the Narendra Modi campaign, defended him against charges in the Ishrat Jahan case, and spearheaded the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement to undercut the United Progressive Alliance government. [1]
The Foundation's primary output ranges from short articles and reports published online to monographs and occasional papers and a quarterly journal called National Security. [7] In addition, the Foundation also holds regular seminars and a monthly discourse on contemporary subjects titled Vimarsh. [8] [9] The think tank has also worked with other think tanks on joint reports. [10] A monthly magazine Vivek is brought out too. [11]
VIF is currently headed by former Deputy NSA of India Arvind Gupta. [12] [13] [14] [15] S. Gurumurthy is the chairman, and former Deputy NSA and former head of National Security Council, Satish Chandra is the vice-chairman of the think tank. [16]
| Name | Position in Indian Government under PM Modi | Former Position | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ajit Doval | National Security Adviser of India | Director of Intelligence Bureau, IPS | [17] |
| Nripendra Misra | Principal Secretary to PM Narendra Modi | Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, IAS | [18] |
| Anil Baijal | Lieutenant Governor of Delhi | Urban Development secretary, IAS | [17] |
| Bibek Debroy | 1)Member of NITI Aayog 2)Chairman of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister | Professor at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi | [19] [20] [21] [22] |
| V K Saraswat | Member of NITI Aayog | Director General of the DRDO | [20] [23] |
| K G Suresh | Director General, Indian Institute of Mass Communication | Senior Consulting Editor at Doordarshan | [20] |
| P K Mishra | Additional Principal Secretary to PM Narendra Modi | Agriculture Secretary, IAS | [24] |
| Arvind Gupta | Former Deputy National Security Adviser of India (2014–2017) | Secretary National Security Council Secretariat, IFS | [17] [25] |
| A. Surya Prakash | Chairperson of Prasar Bharati | Chief of Bureau of Indian Express | [17] |
| C D Sahay | - | Chief of Research and Analysis Wing, IPS | [26] |
| S G Inamdar | – | Vice Chief of Air Staff | [27] |
| Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy | – | Chief of Air Staff | [28] |
| Kanwal Sibal | – | Foreign Secretary, IFS | [28] |
| Balmiki Prasad Singh | – | Home Secretary, IAS | [28] |
| Prabhat Kumar | – | Cabinet secretary, IAS | [28] |
| Satish Chandra | – | Head, NSC Secretariat & Former Deputy National Security Advisor | [29] |
| Tilak Devasher | Member, NSAB, National Security Council | [30] | |
| Lt Gen R K Sawhney (retd.) | Deputy Chief of Army Staff, and Director General Military Intelligence [31] | [32] |
Many retired officers from Defence Forces/ Bureaucracy form the think resource. The members regularly meet to discuss upon subject, ranging from prevailing political, strategical and other administrative issues with an aim of resource development and promote nationalism.[ citation needed ]
The Bharatiya Janata Party is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP is aligned with right-wing politics and has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right paramilitary organisation. Its policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. As of January 2024, it is the country's biggest political party in terms of representation in the Parliament of India as well as state legislatures.
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Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician serving as the current prime minister of India since 26 May 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress.
Ajit Kumar Doval is a bureaucrat, former spymaster and the current National Security Advisor (NSA) of India. Doval is the longest serving NSA, currently serving his third consecutive term since he was appointed 2014. He is a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Kerala cadre.
P. Parameswaran, often referred to as Parameswarji, was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak from Kerala, India who was erstwhile Vice‑President of the Jan Sangh.
Kisan Baburao "Anna" Hazare is an Indian social activist who led movements to promote rural development, increase government transparency, and investigate and punish corruption in public life. In addition to organising and encouraging grassroots movements, Hazare frequently conducted hunger strikes to further his causes—a tactic reminiscent, to many, of the work of Mahatma Gandhi. Hazare also contributed to the development and structuring of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan—the third-highest civilian award—by the Government of India in 1992 for his efforts in establishing this village as a model for others.
Bibek Debroy is an Indian economist, serving as the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. He is also the Chairman of the Finance Ministry's 'Expert Committee for Infrastructure Classification and Financing Framework for Amrit Kaal'. Debroy has made significant contributions to game theory, economic theory, income and social inequalities, poverty, law reforms, railway reforms and Indology among others. Bibek Debroy's recent co-authored magnum opus, Inked in India, stands distinguished as the premier comprehensive documentation, capturing the entirety of recognized fountain pen, nib, and ink manufacturers in India.
Arvind Kejriwal is an Indian politician, activist and former bureaucrat, who served as the 7th Chief Minister of Delhi. He previously was the chief minister from 2013 to 2014 and was serving since 2015. He is also the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) since 2012. He has represented the New Delhi constituency in the Delhi Legislative Assembly since 2015 and from 2013 to 2014.
Brajesh Chandra Mishra was an Indian diplomat from the Indian Foreign Service and politician, best known for serving as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's principal secretary and India's first National Security Advisor from 1998 to 2004. He received Padma Vibhushan for his contributions.
Prashant Bhushan is an Indian author and a public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. He was a member of the faction of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement known as Team Anna which supported Anna Hazare's campaign for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill. After a split in IAC, he helped Team Anna form the Aam Aadmi Party. In 2015, he made several allegations against the party's leadership, its functioning and its deviation from the core ideology, values and commitments. He is one of the founders of Swaraj Abhiyan and Sambhaavnaa, an Institute of Public Policy and Politics.
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Varanasi Ram Madhav is an Indian politician who served as the National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is a member of the National Executive of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and has authored a few books. His latest is Uneasy Neighbours: India and China after Fifty Years of the War.
Arvind Gupta is a career civil servant of the Indian Foreign Service cadre and former Indian Deputy National Security Advisor serving from 2014 to 2017. He was the ex officio Secretary, National Security Council Secretariat. He served as the Director General of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses from January 2012 till his appointment to the post of Deputy NSA.
The Aam Aadmi Party is a political party in India. It was founded on 26 November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions, following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement against then Indian government of Indian National Congress. The AAP is currently the governing party in the Indian state of Punjab and the union territory of Delhi. On 10 April 2023, the AAP was officially granted the status of national party by the ECI. The party's election symbol is a broom. The party is currently part of the coalition I.N.D.I. Alliance.
The Truth: Gujarat 2002 was an investigative report on the 2002 Gujarat riots published by India's Tehelka news magazine in its 7 November 2007 issue. The video footage was screened by the news channel Aaj Tak. The report, based on a six-month-long investigation and involving video sting operations, stated that the violence was made possible by the support of the state police and the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi for the perpetrators. The report and the reactions to it were widely covered in Indian and international media. The recordings were authenticated by India's Central Bureau of Investigation on 10 May 2009.
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Satish Chandra is a 1965 batch retired Indian Foreign Service officer. He is currently the Vice chairperson of the New Delhi based think tank Vivekananda International Foundation.
