All you need to know about NATGRID and its new CEO Ashok Patnaik

Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Ashok Patnaik, who is also the son-in-law of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, was on Wednesday appointed as the CEO of National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), a robust intelligence gathering mechanism being set up to track terror suspects and incidents. 

Patnaik's appointment as CEO, NATGRID, will be effective from the date of assumption of charge of the post upto December 31, 2018 — the date of his retirement on superannuation or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

Who is Ashok Patnaik

Patnaik is a 1983-batch Gujarat cadre officer, who is currently serving as additional director in the Intelligence Bureau. Patnaik married former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s daughter, Daman Singh, in 1991.

According to a report in The Hindu, in October of 2007, Patnaik was decorated with the President’s Police medal. He received the medal from his father-in-law and then prime minister, Manmohan Singh.

What is the NATGRID

NATGRID is an ambitious counter terrorism programme, which will utilise technologies like Big Data and analytics to study and analyse the huge amounts of data from various intelligence and enforcement agencies to help track suspected terrorists and prevent terrorist attacks.

A post Mumbai 26/11 attack measure, NATGRID aims to mitigate a vital deficiency — lack of real time information, which was considered to be one of the major hurdles in detecting US terror suspect David Headley's movement across the country during his multiple visits between 2006 and 2009. 

NATGRID's data sources include records related to immigration entry and exit, banking and financial transactions and telecommunications. The agencies concerned include the Intelligence Bureau, local police and revenue and customs departments.

According to the Union Home Ministry proposal, the NATGRID, which is still in a nascent stage, will connect, in different phases, data providing organisations and users besides developing a legal structure through which information can be accessed by the law enforcement agencies. 

In the first phase, 10 user agencies and 21 service providers will be connected, while in later phases about 950 additional organisations will be connected. In subsequent years, over 1,000 additional organisations will be connected.

While the clearance for the Rs 3,400-crore project from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) came in 2011, execution of the project slowed down after the exit of then home minister P Chidambaram in July 2012. 

Currently, there are around 70 personnel, drawn from both the government and private sectors, in NATGRID.