Centralised ICT Control System Of India

This is the updated version of my previously published article. In my previous article, Praveen Dalal, the leading Techno-Legal Expert of India and Managing Partner of Perry4Law, suggested the establishment of a Centralised ICT Control System in India. The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) accepted his suggestion and established the Central Monitoring System (CMS) of India. The article has been revised and updated keeping in mind the subsequent developments.

The need of a centralised ICT control system was very pressing. The decentralised nature of e-surveillance and lawful interceptions has posed various practical difficulties before the Central government. The DOT and Home Ministry of India realised these practical difficulties and established a CMS for India.

The central monitoring system is a centralised mechanism that can assist in lawful interception of communications from landline, mobile and Internet. This would help the law enforcement and intelligence agencies of India to effectively analyse ICT traffic for intelligence inputs.

According to Praveen Dalal, “Intelligence Agencies of a country play an important role in its Internal and External Security. There must be a “Centralised ICT Control System” to govern Intelligence Agencies if there are more than one such Agencies. If there are numerous Intelligence Agencies working for different Government Departments, there is a possibility of “Lack of Coordination” and “Inadequate and Inappropriate Information Sharing”. Nothing can be more beneficial than a “Centralised ICT Control Centre” for the Indian National and Internal Security.

Presently, intelligence agencies of India are operating in a decentralised manner. There is no centralised authority or Ministry that can coordinate or collaborate between different intelligence agencies. Further, there is no Parliamentary oversight of these intelligence agencies as well. This is also one of the reasons why the national counter terrorism centre (NCTC) of India has still not been established.

The Intelligence Infrastructure of India needs to be rejuvenated and streamlined, opines Praveen Dalal. Home Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram must consider these suggestions seriously and start working in this direction as soon as possible.

National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) Of India

Intelligence agencies of India such as Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Aviation Research Centre (ARC), Intelligence Bureau (IB), National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), etc are working separately and independently in India.

There is no coordination and collaboration between these agencies and at times of crisis this becomes fatal as well. There is no centralised mechanism that can govern and assist in effective and instant collaboration and coordination between these agencies.

In this background, establishment of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) was proposed by the Home Minister P. Chidambaram. According to the proposal, the NCTC would function as an umbrella outfit under the Home Ministry with representation from all security and intelligence agencies, including those working directly under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the Defence Ministry and the Finance Ministry.

Projects like national intelligence grid (Natgrid), crime and criminal tracking and systems (CCTNS), central monitoring system (CMS), Aadhar project/UID project, etc were also launched to strengthen NCTC. The purpose was to have real time intelligence information sharing among law enforcement and various security agencies.

Neither NCTC nor projects like Natgrid, CCTNS, CMS and Aadhar would be successful if the various intelligence agencies keep on guarding their own turf. The whole purpose of “collective intelligence” would fail if these agencies keep on operating independently.

Further, there is an urgent need to bring these intelligence agencies under Parliament scrutiny and accountability. Presently there is no Parliamentary oversight of these intelligence agencies.