MoU between NATGRID and NCRB | 13 Jul 2020

Why in News

Recently, the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to access the centralised online database on FIRs and stolen vehicles.

• NATGRID which seeks to become the one-stop destination for security and intelligence agencies will be operational by 31^st December 2020.

Key Points

• Access to CCTNS: 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 First Information Reports (FIR) in the CCTNS.
  • The MoU enables the NATGRID to get information about details of a suspect as mentioned in the FIR such as his/her father’s name, telephone number and other details.
• Concerns:
  
  • Infringe on the Federal System of the Constitution: The NCRB under the Union government is only a repository and the data pertaining to FIRs of a particular police station are a State subject.
    
    • However, it does not seem to violate any legal provisions as data pertaining to FIRs is shared with all the police stations.
    • The State police will not be a part of NATGRID and they could directly contact the airlines or railways for information.
  • Providing Information to Multiple Agencies: Earlier the Civil Aviation Ministry and airline companies had raised concerns in providing information to yet another agency — NATGRID as they already provide information to the Bureau of Immigration and the customs authorities.
  • Privacy Issues: Many agencies raised their concern regarding the accessibility of Data and privacy.
    
    • However, the information accessed by one agency through the grid will not be accessible to any other agency as it will be an automated system and the request will land directly with the concerned department.
  • Expenditure: The major amount of funds would be required for the expenditure towards the NATGRID software solution and for building infrastructural works of offices, Data Centre etc. at Delhi and Bengaluru.
• National Intelligence Grid
  
  • As a counter-terrorism measure it was proposed after the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008 and functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
  • It is the integrated intelligence grid connecting databases of core security agencies of the Government of India.
  • It is intending to set up an Entity Extraction, Visualization, and Analytics (EVA) system.
• Significance:
  
  • Secure Centralised Database: It will become a secure centralised database to stream sensitive information from sets of data sources such as banks, credit cards, visa, immigration and train and air travel details, as well as from various intelligence agencies.
    
    • Presently, the security agencies directly contact an airline or a telephone company if they are on a suspect’s trail through international servers such as Google etc.
  • Acts as a Link: It will act as a link between intelligence and investigation agencies.
    
    • It will be a medium for at least 10 Central agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) to access data on a secured platform.
  • Technology Intensive Solutions: The solutions provided by the NATGRID would be technology-intensive (e.g. use of Big Data and analytics) involving multiple stakeholders.

Source: TH