R&AW Man In Sight For Next Deputy NSA?

After Pankaj Singh completed his two-year tenure as Deputy National Security Advisor, a few names started to float for the next Deputy NSA. The recent structural change in national security architecture has resulted in a new arrangement of additional NSAs responsible for overall management and coordination among deputy NSAs. 

This second-in-command arrangement has also impacted the Deputy NSAs mix, where one is a senior diplomat responsible for Strategic and Foreign affairs and two IPS officers, generally from Intelligence and paramilitary, for Internal Affairs, . T.V. Ravichandran from the Intelligence Bureau is looking into technology and intelligence affairs. 

Top sources say that if Anish Dayal's candidature for Deputy NSA doesn't materialize, then an option from R&AW could be a viable one as it would not only provide strong intelligence coordination and assessment support but will also support Additional NSA's's work in Intelligence briefings and overall coordination. Sources add that Sunil Acharya, Special Secretary in R&AW, could be sent to the National Security Council Secretariat. One more interesting reason is Achaya's bleak chances of becoming the next R&AW chief with two years in hand and his senior Parag Jain already in line to succeed Sinha soon makes calculations quite difficult for Achaya. Sources add that an extension to any chiefs, be it outgoing chief Ravi Sinha or incoming Chief Parag Jain in the future, would put Achaya out of the race for R&AW chief.