Rajnath reviews progress of NATGRID

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today reviewed the progress of the the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), a robust intelligence gathering mechanism being set up to track terror suspects and incidents.
In a meeting, the Home Minister emphasised the importance of NATGRID in assisting the intelligence and law enforcement agencies in countering national and transnational crimes.
While noting the progress in the implementation of the project so far, Singh desired NATGRID to roll out the projection in a phased manner, focusing on early deliverables.
Home Minster stressed upon the need for NATGRID solution to use state-of-the-art technologies, including big data analytics and artificial intelligence.

Singh was also apprised of the new technology framework recommended by the advisory group, comprising the top technologists in research and academia in the country.
Expressing satisfaction over the progress made in the physical infrastructure, the Home Minister directed the officials to induct the best available talent in the field of Information Technology and cryptology for quicker implementation of the secure solution.

He emphasised that NATGIRD should enjoy a very robust security framework.
The meeting was attended by MoS-Home Hansraj Ahir, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and other senior officers of the Home Ministry.
The NATGRID, which is still in nascent stage, in different phases, will connect data providing organisations and users besides developing a legal structure through which information can be accessed by the law enforcement agencies.

In the first phase, 10 user agencies and 21 service providers will be connected, while in later phases about 950 additional organisations will be linked and another over 1,000 organisations in the subsequent years.
These data sources include records related to immigration entry and exit, banking and financial transactions and telecommunications. The agencies include the Intelligence Bureau, local police and revenue and customs departments.
While the clearance for Rs 3,400 crore project from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) came in 2011, execution of the project slowed down after the exit of the Home Minister P Chidambaram in July 2012.

There are around 70 personnel, drawn from both the government and private sectors, in NATGRID.