Services of State

Defence Research and Development Organisation

The Defence Research and Development Organisation is the research-and-development wing of India's Ministry of Defence, tasked with making the armed forces self-reliant in weapons and military systems. Through a network of about fifty laboratories it develops missiles, radars, armour, aircraft systems and electronic warfare kit, and transfers the resulting technology to public- and private-sector producers. DRDO is a seat of power because it is the state's instrument for indigenising the hardware of national defence — the point where strategic-autonomy policy meets the physics of building weapons.

Department of Atomic Energy

The Department of Atomic Energy is the Government of India agency that runs the country's civil and strategic nuclear enterprise end to end, from uranium mining and heavy-water production to reactor construction, reprocessing and waste management. Established in 1954 under the direct charge of the Prime Minister, it is a seat of power because it has historically held a near-monopoly over nuclear technology, controls the public-sector reactor fleet through NPCIL and BHAVINI, and directs the three-stage programme meant to unlock India's thorium reserves. Its policy is set by the Atomic Energy Commission, which holds full executive and financial powers.

Indian Air Force

The Indian Air Force is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces, charged with securing Indian airspace and conducting aerial warfare. It is one of the three services under the Ministry of Defence, commanded by the Chief of the Air Staff and answerable through the government to the President of India as Supreme Commander. Its combat readiness — measured in fighter squadrons and the programmes meant to fill them — is a central lever of Indian deterrence.

Indian Army

The Indian Army is the land-warfare service of the Indian Armed Forces and the largest of its three branches. It secures India's borders — most actively the Line of Actual Control with China and the Line of Control with Pakistan — and is organised into regional commands under the Chief of the Army Staff.

Indian Coast Guard

The Indian Coast Guard is an armed force of the Union under the Ministry of Defence, constituted under the Coast Guard Act, 1978 to protect India's maritime and national interests in its maritime zones. It is a seat of power because it is the country's principal maritime law-enforcement and search-and-rescue service and, since a 2009 Cabinet decision, the designated authority for coastal security in territorial waters — the standing armed presence that patrols India's exclusive economic zone day to day.

Indian Navy

The Indian Navy is the maritime-warfare service of the Indian Armed Forces, responsible for securing India's coastline, island territories and sea lines of communication across the Indian Ocean. It operates aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered submarines and a surface fleet from three commands, and is the instrument through which India provides security and exercises influence in the Indian Ocean Region. It reports through the Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence (Navy) under the Chief of the Naval Staff.

Indian Space Research Organisation

The Indian Space Research Organisation is India's national space agency and the research-and-development arm of the Department of Space, which reports directly to the Prime Minister. It builds and launches the country's satellites and launch vehicles, runs its planetary and human-spaceflight programmes, and now sits at the centre of a state-led opening of the sector to private industry. ISRO is a seat of power because space capability is simultaneously a scientific, economic, security and strategic-autonomy asset for the Indian state.

Judiciary of India

The Judiciary is the third branch of the Indian state and the guardian of its Constitution. An integrated single hierarchy runs from the Supreme Court of India at the apex, through the High Courts of the states, down to the district and subordinate courts. Through judicial review it can strike down laws and executive action, and through the "basic structure" doctrine it limits even Parliament's power to amend the Constitution. Uniquely among the world's major democracies, the higher judiciary also selects its own members — through the collegium — which is the institution's most contested feature.

The Indian Civil Service

The Indian Civil Service is the country's permanent, career bureaucracy — the administrative machinery that runs the Union and the states regardless of which party governs. Its apex tier is the All India Services created under Article 312 of the Constitution: the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service, recruited and trained centrally but deputed to serve both New Delhi and the state capitals. Entry is almost entirely through the Union Public Service Commission's Civil Services Examination, one of the most competitive contests in the world. It is a seat of power because the minister decides but the officer implements — and holds office through changes of government.