New Delhi: In the wake of the twin terror attacks in 2025—Pahalgam and Delhi—the Centre Sunday substantially beefed up the annual budgetary allocation for the Intelligence Bureau (IB), India’s internal intelligence agency.
In the 2026-27 Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hiked the allocation for the IB to Rs 6,782.43 crore, a more than 50 per cent increase from Rs 4,159.11 crore as per the revised estimates for the ongoing financial year.
Out of the overall Rs 6,782 crore allocated, a huge sum of Rs 2,549 crore has been allocated as capital expenditure, a 10-fold hike from the Rs 257 crore in the revised allocation under capital expenditure vertical for the ongoing financial year. Capital expenditure covers investments in long-term assets, while revenue expenditure covers operational costs, such as salaries and other administrative expenses.
The Centre had already allocated nearly Rs 300 crore more from the budgeted expenditure towards the agency’s administrative expenses, which are critical to India’s internal security apparatus. The budget allocation for the IB is used to meet administrative expenses, including collecting and analysing information on internal threats, terrorist activities, and potential security risks.
The role of the IB came under immense scrutiny over security agencies’ failure to stop two gruesome terrorist attacks, such as the indiscriminate firing on civilians at the Baisaran meadows in the Pahalgam block of Anantnag district in April, and a suicide bombing outside the Red Fort in Delhi in November 2025.
The terrorist attack, carried out by terrorists from Pakistan in Pahalgam, led to the death of 26 people, including one local, as questions were raised over the lack of adequate security at the meadows that attract thousands of visitors, including foreign nationals, making it a potential target for Pakistan-based terror outfits. An offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Resistance Front, had taken responsibility for the attack before pulling back in the wake of global outrage and condemnation.
The terrorist attack in Delhi last November drew even more scrutiny over the lack of intelligence inputs and coordination between agencies, as one of the members of the ‘white-collar’ terror module run by professional doctors slipped away from the grasp of Jammu and Kashmir Police as well as the Haryana Police before detonating the explosives-laden car he was driving. The module member, named Umar-un-Nabi, faculty of the Al-Falah Medical College, was confirmed through DNA examination to be the driver of the car that exploded outside the Red Fort.
The NIA has so far arrested eight accused in the case, including the trio of doctors from Jammu and Kashmir—Dr Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie, Dr Adeel Ahmed Rather and Dr Bilal Naseer Malla—along with Shaheen Saeed from Lucknow.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)