Vikram Sood is the former head of India's foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), and an advisor to the Observer Research Foundation, an independent public policy think tank in New Delhi. Sood was an officer of the Indian Postal Service (IPoS) before he joined the intelligence organisation R&AW and later served as its spymaster from 2000 to 2003. He retired as a career intelligence officer with 31 years of service on 31 March 2003.