You're listening to the CyberWire Network, powered by N2K.

Welcome to Spycast.

My name is Dr. Andrew Hammond, story and curator here at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

Every week, Spycast explores a world of intelligence and espionage by bringing you in-depth conversations, spies, spy masters, intelligence officers and authors.

We explore the stories, secrets, tradecraft and technology of a world that looms beneath the surface of every day life.

Welcome to this week's edition of Spycast.

Now, I'm really pleased this week for a number of reasons.

Firstly, this is the final installment of our Spy Chiefs trilogy.

And with this trilogy, we see the relaunch of Spycast 2.0.

This will feature a creeping barrage of gradual changes in the weeks and months ahead.

This will include improved audio, extended show notes, fill transcripts, further resources and a glossary.

I'm also really pleased because Vikram just had such an interesting career.

I mean, he's a career intelligence officer who got to the very summit of his field.

He retired in 2003 as the director of India's external intelligence agency.

That's the research and analysis wing.

I'm also really pleased because I think it's important that India takes a place within Spycast programming.

Just to give you a sense of perspective, there are more people of the Muslim faith in India than in Pakistan.

In Pakistan's got the fifth largest population in the world.

There's more people within India's borders than in the entire Western hemisphere.

India, of course, is the world's largest democracy and it will soon overtake China as the world's largest country.

It sounds like you're really busy and you're since you have retired.

Yeah, I think that's what the wife complained.

...