Since the shifting of SSB and CIOA to the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2001, DGS consists of ARC and SFF only.
[5] When B. N. Mullik, Director of the Intelligence Bureau retired in October 1964, he was re-employed to oversee these covert operations.
SFF, ARC and SSB, already shifted from the Ministry of External Affairs to the Prime Minister's Secretariat on 1 January 1965, became components of this new organisation.
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, village volunteers, male and female, trained in armed guerrilla warfare by SSB, had participated in protecting the Indian border.
[32] The training of Mukti Bahini was arranged by R&AW at camps of BSF, CRPF, Assam Rifles and Rajasthan Armed Constabulary.
[35] Other than training activities, SSB also ran intelligence operations and refugee relief camps on a major scale during the Bangladesh War.
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the SG was given the responsibility of prime ministerial security till the raising of the Special Protection Group.
Operation Meghdoot was launched by the Indian Army in 1984 to capture the Siachen Glacier, in which SFF commandos played a pivotal role.
[40][41] Earlier, ARC surveillance missions had verified presence of Pakistani troops on the Indian side with photographic evidence.
[42][43] In the ongoing Sino-Indian border dispute, India used Tibetan components of SFF in 2020–2021 China–India skirmishes, to capture prominent hill tops south of the Pangong Tso in Ladakh on 31 August 2020 and thereafter in the Galwan River Valley conflict.
Note: Combatised personnel of SFF have pay parity with the Army, vide Cabinet Secretariat Order dated 16.10.2009; pension & pensionary benefits to SFF personnel are also at par with Indian Army for Group 'Y' 'Personnel Below Officer Rank' (PBORs).