National Intelligence Grid linked to NPR with details of 119 crore residents: govt.

National Intelligence Grid linked to NPR with details of 119 crore residents: govt.

The National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), a secure platform for the police and other investigating agencies to access government and private databases in real-time, has been linked to the National Population Register (NPR), which has the family-wise details of 119 crore residents in India, government officials have said.

The Union Home Ministry has been pushing for the enhanced use of NATGRID by the State police forces and Central law and security agencies for intelligence gathering and speedy investigation of criminal cases through indigenous and secure platforms.

On December 9, the Ministry informed the Lok Sabha that an Organised Crime Network Database was being developed on NATGRID’s IT platform to facilitate secure data-sharing between the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the State Anti-Terror Squads (ATS). The reply said that upgraded NATGRID tools, particularly “Gandiva”, are supporting multi-source data collection and analysis.

The Hindu reported on December 7 that NATGRID is, on an average, getting nearly 45,000 requests a month. The platform, accessible only to security agencies, became operational last year after being conceptualised in 2009 in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

The data for NPR, which stores information family wise, were first collected in 2010 with the first phase of the 2011 Census and was last updated in 2015 through door-to-door enumeration. It was to be updated further during the 2021 Census, which has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Census 2027

On December 12, when the Union Cabinet approved the proposal for conducting Census 2027 at a cost of ₹11,718 crore, there was no separate allocation for the NPR. Earlier on July 29, the government informed the Lok Sabha that no decision had been taken to update the NPR during the forthcoming Census exercise.

The NPR is the first step for the creation of a countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Elaborating about “Gandiva”, a State police official said the details of all family members of a suspect or a person of interest if available in NPR could be accessed through the platform. Gandiva can be used for facial recognition and entity resolution.

Asked about privacy concerns as the police and security agencies can access almost all kinds of data about a citizen without even having to register a first information report, the official said, “Each query is logged in the system. The purpose of the information being sought has to be stated and the senior police officers have an oversight. There are several checks and balances.”

The Ministry has asked the States to liberally use the platform.