CISF turns 57, to guard all ports

The country's industrial-security force is handed every port and named the nodal agency for drone security, at its 57th Raising Day in Mundali, Odisha.

What happened

• The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) marked its 57th Raising Day on 6 March 2026, with the ceremony held at Mundali in Cuttack district, Odisha.
• The chief guest was Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah, who announced two fresh charges for the force.
• The CISF, which already guards Parliament and major national institutions, will now also secure all of the country's ports — extending its mandate beyond airports and factories to maritime gateways.
• It has been designated the nodal agency for drone security, the single force responsible for counter-drone protection of sensitive sites.
• In the coming period the force will guard private industrial groups in a "hybrid mode", a paid commercial-security model alongside its public installations.
• The Home Minister restated the government's goal of a country free of Naxalism by 31 March 2026, citing the CISF's role in anti-Maoist operations.
• The force's annual journal, 'Sentinel', was released, and foundation stones were laid for new residential complexes.

Background & context

The CISF is one of India's seven Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) — the uniformed forces that function under the operational and administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), distinct from the Army, which sits under the Ministry of Defence. It was raised on 10 March 1969 under the Central Industrial Security Force Act, 1968, which is why its Raising Day falls in early March each year and why the 2026 edition is the 57th.

The force was created for a narrow purpose: to provide integrated security cover to the public-sector undertakings (PSUs) that anchored India's early industrialisation — steel plants, fertiliser units, oil refineries, heavy-engineering complexes and power stations. As the economy and its critical infrastructure widened, so did the CISF's brief. A 1983 amendment recast it from a watch-and-ward establishment into an armed force of the Union, and successive expansions added airport security (taken over after the 1999 IC-814 hijacking exposed civil-aviation vulnerabilities), the Delhi Metro, government buildings, heritage monuments, the nuclear and space establishments, and a dedicated private-sector security wing empowered by a 2009 amendment to the parent Act.

The 2026 announcement continues that arc of mission-creep into newer threat surfaces. Handing the force all ports brings maritime infrastructure — major and minor — under a single specialist guard, where port security had earlier been a patchwork of state police, customs, the marine police and individual port-trust arrangements. Naming the CISF the nodal agency for drone security recognises that unmanned aerial systems have become a live threat to airports, refineries and border installations, and that a unified counter-drone responsibility avoids the gaps that come from dispersed accountability.

Where the Raising Day sits. The choice of Mundali, Odisha as venue is itself a signal: the location threads together the force's anti-Maoist record in the eastern States and the heavy concentration of mines, steel, power and port assets in that belt that the CISF guards. The Home Minister's reference to a "Red Corridor from Tirupati to Pashupatinath" — the imagined contiguous Maoist stretch from southern India up to the Nepal border — frames the 31 March 2026 deadline for ending Left-Wing Extremism, in which the CISF has contributed by protecting installations and supporting operations in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. Read alongside the day's other security release on the Sagar Sankalp maritime dialogue, the port-security handover also fits a wider push to harden India's coastline and trade gateways as the maritime threat picture evolves.

For Prelims

• Full name: Central Industrial Security Force — a Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), not a state police force and not part of the Army.
• Statutory base: the CISF Act, 1968; force raised 10 March 1969.
• Parent ministry: Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA); headed by a Director-General, an IPS officer.
• Current footprint: secures 361 vital installations, including 70 airports, across India.
• New mandate (2026): security of all ports; designated the nodal agency for drone security; hybrid-mode cover for private industrial groups.
• Recent charges named: Kartavya Bhavan and Seva Teerth in Delhi, Noida International Airport (Jewar), Navi Mumbai Airport, Lengpui Airport, the Jawaharpur Thermal Power Project and the Bhakra Dam Project.
• Honours: 13,693 medals for gallantry and distinguished service over 56 years, including 9 President's Distinguished Service Medals and 2 Best Battalion Trophies.
• Infrastructure: foundation stones for three residential complexes (Kamrup, Nashik, Sehore) at ₹890 crore; two complexes inaugurated (Rajarhat, Delhi).
• Mascot publication: the force's annual journal is named 'Sentinel'.

The full CAPF set (the "how many / match the pairs" trap). India recognises seven Central Armed Police Forces, all under the MHA: the Assam Rifles (AR), the Border Security Force (BSF), the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the National Security Guard (NSG) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). Each has a signature role: the BSF guards the Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangladesh borders; the ITBP the China frontier; the SSB the Nepal and Bhutan borders; the CRPF is the lead internal-security and anti-Naxal force; the NSG is the elite counter-terror and VIP-protection unit; the Assam Rifles guards the Indo-Myanmar border and aids counter-insurgency in the North-East under a dual MHA–Army arrangement. The CISF's signature is industrial and critical-infrastructure security.

How it compares to a peer. The closest comparison is the CRPF, the largest CAPF, which is a general-purpose internal-security force used for riot control, election duty and anti-Maoist operations. The CISF is the opposite in temperament — a specialist, installation-bound guard rather than a mobile strike force. Where the CRPF moves to where the trouble is, the CISF is built to make a fixed asset — an airport terminal, a refinery, a metro network, now a port — un-attackable.

How the mandate has grown — the timeline worth carrying. The force began in 1969 with a single mission: guarding the public-sector industrial plants that powered early planned development. A 1983 amendment made it an armed force of the Union, raising its weapons and powers from those of a watch-and-ward body. After the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814, civil-aviation security across the country's airports was progressively transferred to the CISF, which is now its most visible public face — the personnel an ordinary traveller meets at the security check. A 2009 amendment created a dedicated wing to provide security to private-sector undertakings on a cost-reimbursement basis, the seed of the "hybrid-mode" private-industry cover the 2026 announcement scales up. Along the way the force added the Delhi Metro, the seats of government, heritage monuments such as the Taj Mahal and Red Fort, and the sensitive nuclear and space establishments. It also runs a Fire Wing that provides fire-safety cover to many of the same installations and a consultancy wing that advises other organisations on security. With a sanctioned strength well above one lakh personnel, the CISF is among the larger CAPFs and is unusual in being almost entirely a protective rather than offensive force.

Why it matters

The expansion answers a real governance problem: India's critical infrastructure has multiplied faster than the security architecture protecting it, and responsibility for high-value assets has often been fragmented across agencies with uneven standards. Ports are the clearest case. They handle the bulk of the country's external trade, sit at the edge of the maritime domain, and are exposed to smuggling, infiltration and sabotage — yet their security has historically been split between port trusts, customs, the marine police and state forces. Bringing every port under one professional, centrally-trained guard standardises that cover and creates a single chain of accountability.

The drone-security designation matters for a newer reason. Cheap, commercially available unmanned aircraft have turned into a low-cost threat to airports, refineries, power plants and border posts — for surveillance, for dropping contraband or weapons, and potentially for attack. Scattering counter-drone duty across many guards invites gaps; concentrating it in one nodal force lets the state build specialised detection, jamming and interception capability and a common doctrine. The hybrid-mode private-security wing, meanwhile, lets strategically important private industrial assets buy the same professional cover on a paid basis, widening the protective net without the state owning every facility.

For Mains

Related: CISF entity hub · Security & Defence theme · This week's cards