Context

The Ministry of Home Affairs in a reply in Loksabha informed that the NATGRID will come in to operation by the end of 2020.

Background:

• This project was conceptualised following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks because the lack of real time information was considered to be one of the major hurdles in detecting U.S. terror suspect David Headley’s movement across the country during his multiple visits between 2006 and 2009.
  
  

  The 10 agencies which will be able to access the NATGRID data on real time basis are: Intelligence Bureau (IB). Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW). Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Enforcement Directorate (ED). Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). Directorate General of Central Excise and Intelligence (DGCEI). Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).The Cabinet Committee on Security had given approval to this Rs 3,400 crore project in 2010.

About NATGRID:

• It is an integrated intelligence grid which will connect databases of core security agencies.
• NATGRID was formed with an aim to collect comprehensive patterns of intelligence that can be readily accessed by intelligence agencies and will link 10 user agencies with certain databases that would be procured from 21 organisations.
• The NATGRID will have data related to all immigration entry and exit, banking and financial transactions, credit card purchases, telecom, individual tax payers, air flyers, train travellers besides others to generate intelligence inputs.

Criticism over NATGRID project:

• This project faced opposition from intelligence agencies as they felt it would impinge on their territory and possibly result in leaks on the leads they were working on to other agencies.
• The efficiency of the project was questioned as no state agency or police force has access to its database initially.

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