Context:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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”.
Relevance:
GS-III: Internal Security Challenges (Various Agencies and other interventions regarding Internal Security and their mandate), GS-II: Polity and Governance (Government Policies and Interventions)
Dimensions of the Article:
- National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)
- Other Measure for tracking: Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS)
National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)
- NATGRID initially started in 2009 is an online database for collating scattered pieces of information and putting them together on one platform.
- It links at least 10 Central government Intelligence and investigation agencies, such as the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing and others have access to the data on a secured platform.
- NATGRID is exempted from the Right to Information Act, 2005 under sub-section (2) of Section 24.
- The NATGRID enables multiple security and intelligence agencies to access a database related to immigration entry and exit, banking and telephone details, among others, from a common platform.
- The 10 user agencies will be linked independently with certain databases which will be procured from 21 providing organisations including telecom, tax records, bank, immigration etc. to generate intelligence inputs.
Other Measure for tracking: Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS)
- Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) is a project initiated in June 2009 which aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at the Police Station level. This will be done through adoption of principles of e-Governance, and creation of a nationwide networked infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system around “investigation of crime and detection of criminals”. CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan of Govt. of India.
- The Full implementation of the Project with all the new components would lead to a Central citizen portal having linkages with State level citizen portals that will provide a number of citizen friendly services like Police Verification for various purposes including passport verification, reporting a crime including cyber-crime and online tracking of the case progress etc.
-Source: The Hindu
