Prime Minister Narendra Modi (File photograph)
The National Intelligence Grid or Natgrid - a central database that will collate information from 22 sources to feed 11 security and intelligence agencies -- may be reality within six months, sources told NDTV.
The Narendra Modi government is set to revitalize the idea conceived by the erstwhile UPA government, which had failed to fructify due to differences between the participating agencies and the lack of political will to bring them all on board.
The source of Natgrid data can be anything -- credit cards, airlines, railways, banks, passport, income tax, visa and emigration, motor registration or Adhaar.
The information will be used to predict terror attacks and zero-in on suspects. It will also help with investigations into white collar crime and answer queries from various agencies on any individual or entity in real time.
The organisations that will use the database includes the Research and Analysis Wing, Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, the National Investigation Agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Financial Intelligence Unit and the state police.
A senior government official told NDTV that Natgrid will not be separate institution as initially planned, "but will be placed under the Intelligence Bureau".
Ashok Prasad, the special secretary (internal security) in home ministry, has been asked to take temporary charge of it. "Once the organisations have been stabilised, it will be passed on to the IB," the officer told NDTV.
The idea was conceived by former Union minister P Chidambaram after the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. The database was envisaged as a separate body that would assist investigative agencies by collecting, collating and analyzing data to predict possible terror attacks and zero in on possible suspects.
But bureaucratic infighting, reluctance to share information and finally the lack of political will to hammer out the differences, ensured that Natgrid could never start functioning.
"There is still some reluctance to share information, but we have been given a clear mandate to get the organisation going," the officer told NDTV.