Paramilitary forces of India

The Paramilitary Forces of India (PMF) are those agencies of the Government of India which aid the operations of the law enforcement agencies of India and the Indian Armed Forces. With over a million personnel in active service, the PMF is one of the world's largest paramilitary organizations.

The Central Police Organizations (CPO) forms the first tier of the PMF while the Central Paramilitary Forces (CPF) forms the second tier. The primary difference between the two is that the CPO works independently or in coordination with the Indian Federal Agencies, State Police Forces and other Indian Law Enforcement Agencies, whereas the CPF works in close cooperation with the Indian Armed Forces (which includes the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force). During a war, the CPF would work directly under the control of the Armed Forces unlike the CPO. All branches of the PMF, excluding the Indian Coast Guard, are agencies of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Coast Guard, a component of the CPF, is an agency of the Indian Defense Ministry and works in close coordination with the Indian Navy. Some of the administrative ranks of the paramilitary forces are shared with the Indian Police Service (IPS).

The PMF consists of several different components with a wide range of roles. Most of these forces, however, tend to share a broadly gendarmerie role and generally perform counter-insurgency or anti-terrorist missions. The Central Reserve Police Force, which primarily assists the Indian Police in maintaining law and order, is the largest of the paramilitary forces in India.^[2] Others, such as the Border Security Force (BSF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), aid the Indian Army in guarding the international borders of India.