The National Intelligence Grid

• The National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) has signed an MoU with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to access the centralised online database on FIRs and stolen vehicles.

About:

• The MoU will give NATGRID access to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) database, a platform that links around 14,000 police stations. All State police are mandated to file FIRs in the CCTNS.

• NATGRID seeks to become the one-stop destination for security and intelligence agencies to access database related to immigration entry and exit, banking and telephone details of a suspect on a “secured platform”.

• The project First conceptualised in 2009 under then Home Minister P. Chidambaram, has got a renewed push under Home Minister Amit Shah. The project aims to go live by December 31.

• It will be a medium for at least 10 Central agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing to access data on a secured platform. The data will be procured by NATGRID from 21 organisations such as the telecom, tax records, bank, immigration etc.

Technology-intensive solutions:

• It said the major amount is on account of expenditure “towards the NATGRID software solution” and for “building infrastructural works of NATGRID office, Data Centre etc. at Delhi and Bengaluru.”

• The MHA said the solutions to be implemented by NATGRID are technology-intensive and in greenfield areas involving “multiple stakeholders and an ever-evolving ecosystem”.