May 11: Keen to make the National Intelligence Grid (NIG) fully operational by May 2011, the home ministry is finalising the detailed project report of the NIG which will be placed before home minister P. Chidambaram soon for approval.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has cleared the NIG proposal in its last meeting after hectic discussions within the CCS which discussed the issue over some time keeping in view the pros and cons as well as the need for incorporating certain safety valves since the project involves sensitive and vital data. Meawhile, appointments to the NIG have already begun, government sources said. The NIG proposal is aimed at setting up an authority which will collate 21 categories of database like railway and air travel, income tax, phone calls, bank account and credit card details, visa and immigration records, property records and driving license of all citizens in the country.
Such information will mainly be accessed by 11 agencies such as Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing, the Defence Intelligence Agency, the intelligence directorates of the Air Force and the Navy, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, the National Technical Research Organisation and the National Investigation Agency. “A secure network will be established for the collation and dissemination of data,” an official said.
The NIG is the first step towards setting up of the ambitious National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC). The NCTC will finally subsume the NIG and other agencies like the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) which was reactivated after the 26/11 attack. The proposed NCTC will be the nodal agency under the home ministry to combat terror threats.
The revamping of the internal security architecture gains prominence in view of Indian agencies failing to detect American-Pakistani Lashkar-e-Tayyaba terror operative David Headley’s movements across the country during his multiple visits to India between 2006 and 2009. Headley has confessed to plotting the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.