Union Government constituted a Committee to look into NATGRID

Union Government on 30 December 2014 constituted a high-level committee to allay apprehension of data sharing by various government agencies over National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID). NATGRID is a real time intelligence sharing set up.

The committee will be headed by the Union Home Secretary. Other members of the committee will include the chiefs of all intelligence agencies and investigating units.

The committee will discuss the steps with 22 agencies like Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Financial intelligence Unit (FIU), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), and others.

It will also discuss the issues with the state government and chalk out strategy on how to bring synergy in data sharing, coordination and dissemination of information.

About NATGRID
NATGRID was proposed by former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram after the Mumbai 26/11 attack in 2008 and was approved by the Cabinet committee on Security during UPA regime.

It aims to synergise 25 categories of database from agencies like, railways, banks, airlines, credit card companies, immigration and others, and make it available to the law enforcement officers.
It was also aimed to identify, capture and prosecute terrorists and help pre-empt terror plots.

The project was to be implemented in four phases, the first two of which was planned to be operationalised by 2014 at a cost of 1100 crores rupees while the initial data sourcing was targeted to be made retrievable as early as 2013.