All you need to know about NATGRID and its new CEO
The 26/11 attacks on Mumbai led to the exposure of several weaknesses in India’s intelligence gathering and action networks. After the attack NATGRID is part of the radical overhaul of the security and intelligence apparatuses of India which was mooted by the then Home Minister P. Chidambaram. India also have evolved on the digital front and shared cyber information with the other countries like Singapore.
What is the NATGRID
The National Intelligence Grid or NATGRID is the integrated intelligence grid connecting databases of core security agencies of the Government of India to collect comprehensive patterns of intelligence that can be readily accessed by intelligence agencies.The NATGRID programme utilises latest technologies like Big Data and analytics to study and analyse the huge amounts of data from various intelligence and enforcement agencies to help track suspected terrorists and prevent terrorist attacks.
What is Source of Data
NATGRID will integrate 21 categories of data from agencies like
- Banks
- Railways
- Airlines,
- Income tax department
- Credit card companies
- Visa and immigration
This combined data will be made available to 11 central agencies including the
- R&AW
- National Investigation Agency
- CBI
- Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
- Intelligence Bureau
- Narcotics Control Bureau
- Enforcement Directorate
which will get help to prevent terrorist attacks and criminal activities.
The work
The first phase includes 10 user agencies and 21 service providers which will be connected, while in later phases about 950 additional organisations will be connected.Government has target to connect over 1,000 additional organisations in subsequent years.This project has got clearance for funds amounting Rs 3,400-crore from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) came in 2011, but execution of the project slowed down after the exit of then home minister P Chidambaram in July 2012.
New CEO for NATGRID
Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Ashok Patnaik, who is also the son-in-law of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, was on Wednesday appointed as the CEO of National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), the charge is effective upto December 31, 2018.
About Ashok Patnaik
Mr. Ashok Patnaik who is a 1983-batch Gujarat cadre officer, currently serves as additional director in the Intelligence Bureau. Patnaik also is a Son-in-law to former former prime minister Manmohan Singh and married his daughter, Daman Singh, in 1991.According to a report in The Hindu, in October of 2007, Patnaik was decorated with the President’s Police medal. He received the medal from his father-in-law and then prime minister, Manmohan Singh.