Like construction worker,will back off once job done

Last week,the Cabinet Committee on Security began the process of scrutinising procedures and clearances needed for establishing...

Last week,the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) began the process of scrutinising procedures and clearances needed for establishing the NATGRID or the National Intelligence Grid,an ambitious plan to provide intelligence and security agencies a single view of critical nationwide data,scheduled to be up and running in two years.

The man chosen as the NATGRID CEO is Captain Raghu Raman,a 44-year-old who headed Mahindra and Mahindras Defence Land Systems. The project will also be a test for a private sector-government partnership which, unlike Nandan Nilekanis UID or unique identification number project,will delve into the sensitive areas of terror tracking and intelligence sharing.

A former Army Captain who switched to the corporate sector to set up cyber security systems for companies such as Essar,Kotak and ICICI Bank,Raman calls his new assignment an opportunity of a lifetime. And yet,as he prepares to set out for the groundwork to network 21 sources of information and provide real-time access to 11 intelligence and security agencies,he is convinced that at some stage,private experts,maybe even he himself,must disengage from a fully-functional NATGRID.

My agenda is to provide a single view of all available data to selected agencies. A number of experts in the private sector are enthused enough with the project,saying they want to join the NATGRID team even pro bono, Raman told The Indian Express. But I see the upcoming team of non-government experts and engineers as construction workers of a mega system who will eventually back off and hand over the grid to manning agencies.

According to Union Home Secretary G K Pillai,the existing Multi Agency Center (MAC,the nodal intelligence-sharing unit working under the Intelligence Bureau) will subsume into the NATGRID. We are looking at a Rs 2,800-crore budget for NATGRID over a two-year period. And yes,we expect there will be some turf issues. But the consultation stage is over and the final CCS clearance is awaited, Pillai said.

As he waits for the final green-light,Raman has begun putting in long hours at NATGRIDs temporary office in the Vigyan Bhavan Annexe. A larger accommodation has to be identified for his team.

Raman said that 21 prospective databanks have been identified data of banks and financial institutions,telephone companies,police stations,railways,airlines,immigration,income tax records,vehicle registration,arms licences and others.

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It is a difficult task. Take for instance,police records,registration of FIRs and arrest records. They are recorded in different languages in different states and in different formats. First they have to be made compatible,then captured electronically and finally made accessible at the press of a button. Also,take telephone records and data. This will involve both government and private companies and all forms of existing telephony, Raman said.

So have 26/11 and the David Headley case been triggers for the NATGRID? In a sense yes,but with changing technologies,we have to look far beyond such cases.

The NATGRID model is based not on facts but patterns. And the strength of capturing and disseminating critical data is that while you need a diversification of intelligence inputs and pieces of information,you need unification in the patterns, he said.