Part of: Prelims and GS III – Defence and security
Context The IndianPrime Minister is soon expected to launch the National Intelligence Grid or NATGRID that aims to provide a “cutting-edge technology to enhance India’s counter-terror capabilities”.
The final “synchronisation and testing” of the ambitious electronic database is being carried out so that it can go live.
What isNATGRID?
NATGRID is an online database for collating scattered pieces of information from more than 20 organisations in the field of telecom, tax records, bank, immigration, etc. to enable the generation of intelligence inputs.
NATGRID is a post Mumbai 26/11 attack measure.
It aims to mitigate a vital deficiency — lack of real time information, which was considered to be one of the major hurdles in detecting US terror suspect David Headley’s movement across the country during his multiple visits between 2006 and 2009.
NATGRID will utilise technologies like Big Data and analytics to study and analyse the data from various intelligence and enforcement agencies
At least 10 central agencies like IB, R&AW and others will have access to the data for counter-terror investigations.
It will also have access to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems, including FIRs, across 14,000 police stations in India.
Unlike the NCTC or the NIA which are central agencies, the NATGRID is essentially a tool that enables security agencies to locate and obtain relevant information on terror suspects from pooled data sets of various organizations and services in the country.
It will help identify, capture and prosecute terrorists and help preempt terror plots.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) are two organisations established in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
The data recovery centre for NATGRID is at Bengaluru
Do you know?
NATGRID is exempted from the Right to Information Act, 2005 under sub-section (2) of Section 24.
The project was supposed to go live by December 31 2020 but was postponed due to COVID-19
