WHAT is NATGRID ?
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National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) is a CENTRAL organization
formed for the purpose of procuring information and Raw data
from various sources…. and by “various sources”, I mean really a
wide variety of sources, ranging from open-source data, financial
data, telecom data, transportation data, government databases
TO FIR’s and confidential intelligence gathered by Secret
Agencies and even international partners.
In Reality, the specifics of the data collected by NATGRID may not be
publicly disclosed in great detail due to security concerns, it is known to
involve information from very diverse sources.
Not just collection of DATA, but also TO DEVELOP TECHNOLOGIES AND
TOOLS TO PROCESS THE DATA and gather valuable information in real-time to prevent anti-national
attacks on India. In an attempt to deploy latest information technology developments like Artificial
Intelligence and Complex data engineering in the NATGRID , The Union Minister for Home and Cooperation,
Shri Amit Shah inaugurated the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) Bengaluru premises in May 2022.
Bengaluru being the Tech-Capital of India , will enable the government to leverage the Tech Know-how
resources of the city.
----------------------------------------- So, is NATGRID = The Eye OF Sauron??
( Reference for “The Lord of the Rings” Series Fans )
Consider the following pop culture reference of, how
in “The Lord Of the Rings” Series , the Eye of Sauron
is ever-watchful…. be it day or night , throughout the
Fictional Middle-Earth and kingdom of Mordor… in
search of any signs of rebellion or opposition to
Sauron’s rule. Even the slightest whisper of rebellion
will attract the wrath of Sauron.
Similarly, the NATGRID is ever-watchful on the Data
generated by the Country in search of any whisper of
anti-national, terror or attacks of similar nature….. So
that it can be neutralized at an early stage .
Alright… So in Simple terms… NATGRID is the centralized
data access solution for security and intelligence agencies.
It is analogous to a CENTRALISED search engine …lets
say.. like Google… BUT…for the Government agencies to
find all the relevant information from various sources at one
single place…and also process information to obtain
valuable intelligence; …Because DATA enables agencies
to make better-informed and statically backed decisions…
The need for such an agency was warranted by the
infamous 26/11-2008 Mumbai attacks
LEARNING THE HARD WAY !!!
26/11 – 2008 MUMBAI ATTACKS ------------------
The Ever-moving city of Mumbai went momentarily numb on 26/11/2008, cause of the
Pakistani-terrorist attack at multiple locations in the city of Mumbai; the
Retrospective Analysis of the Attack, exposed several flaws within the
functioning of Security agencies in India back then.
Lack of fluent dissemination of information and coordination between the
agencies; and, no monitoring or collection of Vital Public information were
identified as the key intelligence flaw among other observations.
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- Pic from High Level Enquiry Commission Report on 26/11
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--- lack of “intelligent appreciation of threats”
The intelligence agencies had received information of
such an attack from several sources, but that
information was considered as non-actionable
intelligence and were ignored, mainly because there
was no dedicated Machinery back then, to make
appropriate assessment.
