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The government on Monday gave its in-principle approval to National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), which will facilitate robust information sharing among law enforcement agencies to combat terror threat at home and abroad.
The clearance came after a detailed briefing and presentation about the NATGRID project along with safeguards and oversight mechanisms was given by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the members of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"The CCS has given in-principle approval to the project and has instructed MHA to proceed accordingly," an official spokesperson said.
The NATGRID will have access to about 21 categories of database like railway and air travel, income tax, bank account details, credit card transactions, visa and immigration records.
The project once comes into existence, will facilitate robust information sharing by security agencies and law enforcement agencies to combat terror threat.
As per the initial plan, access to the combined data will be given to 11 agencies, which include various central intelligence agencies and the National Investigation Agency among others.
The detailed project report of NATGRID was ready in December 2010. The project was launched in December 2009 and was targeted to operationalise by May 2011.
Earlier, the government had extended the services of Chief Executive Officer of Natgrid Raghu Raman for six more months beginning 1st June.
Home Minister P Chidambaram said earlier this month that whatever concerns regarding the architecture of the Nat grid would be brought to the CCS, and would be discussed at the meeting.
The Natgrid is the Home Ministry’s ambitious project to facilitate robust information sharing by security agencies and law enforcement agencies to combat terror threat at home and abroad.
CCS clears proposal for buying 10 heavy lift planes from US
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Monday cleared a proposal to buy from the US ten C-17 heavy lift military aircraft worth USD 4.1 billion, the biggest-ever defence deal to be entered between the two countries.
"The CCS meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cleared the proposal for purchase of the planes from the US through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route," Defence Ministry officials said in New Delhi.
Under the deal, the US defence major Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft, will have to invest 30 per cent of the contract amount for setting up defence facilities in India, they said.
As per the procurement procedure, offsets clause entails that a vendor winning a defence deal worth over Rs 300 crore has to reinvest at least 30 per cent of the deal amount in Indian defence, homeland security or civilian aerospace sectors.
The deal, which amounts to over Rs 18,000 crore, would be the biggest-ever defence contract to be entered with the US.
Prior to this, the biggest deal with the US was worth USD 2.1 billion for procurement of eight P-8I maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft from Boeing through direct commercial sales in 2009.
Boeing, along with another US company Lockheed Martin, had recently failed to qualify in a bid for procurement of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the IAF, which had upset the Americans.
The MMRCAs are likely to cost India over USD 11 billion.
Washington had, however, then said that strategic ties with India would not be overshadowed by exclusion of the two American companies from the Indian fighter contract and the bilateral defence dialogue between the two nations would work on enhancing cooperation in cutting edge technology.
India is planning to procure the aircraft for augmenting its fleet, which now comprises Russian-made transport aircraft Ilyushin-76 and Antonov-32.
After finalising the initial deal for 10 aircraft, the IAF is also planning to place orders for additional six C-17s.
The C-17 will be the second American airlifter in the IAF transport fleet, which recently inducted the C-130 J Super Hercules.
The four-engine C-17 aircraft can lift two T-90 tanks and artillery guns and are used for rapid strategic airlift of troops and cargo to operating bases throughout the world.
It can also perform tactical airlift, medical evacuation and airdrop missions.
The aircraft has the capacity to carry over 130 fully- equipped combat ready troops.
However, the aircraft would come with some important communication equipment in absence of the contentious Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) with the US.
In the recent past, India had finalised defence deals worth over USD eight billion, including the C-130J, C-17, P-8I and Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Several more multi-billion dollar deals are in the pipeline for being cleared in the near future.
source: http://www.ddinews.gov.in/Homepage/Homepage+-+Top+Story/ccs.htm
The clearance came after a detailed briefing and presentation about the NATGRID project along with safeguards and oversight mechanisms was given by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the members of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"The CCS has given in-principle approval to the project and has instructed MHA to proceed accordingly," an official spokesperson said.
The NATGRID will have access to about 21 categories of database like railway and air travel, income tax, bank account details, credit card transactions, visa and immigration records.
The project once comes into existence, will facilitate robust information sharing by security agencies and law enforcement agencies to combat terror threat.
As per the initial plan, access to the combined data will be given to 11 agencies, which include various central intelligence agencies and the National Investigation Agency among others.
The detailed project report of NATGRID was ready in December 2010. The project was launched in December 2009 and was targeted to operationalise by May 2011.
Earlier, the government had extended the services of Chief Executive Officer of Natgrid Raghu Raman for six more months beginning 1st June.
Home Minister P Chidambaram said earlier this month that whatever concerns regarding the architecture of the Nat grid would be brought to the CCS, and would be discussed at the meeting.
The Natgrid is the Home Ministry’s ambitious project to facilitate robust information sharing by security agencies and law enforcement agencies to combat terror threat at home and abroad.
CCS clears proposal for buying 10 heavy lift planes from US
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Monday cleared a proposal to buy from the US ten C-17 heavy lift military aircraft worth USD 4.1 billion, the biggest-ever defence deal to be entered between the two countries.
"The CCS meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cleared the proposal for purchase of the planes from the US through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route," Defence Ministry officials said in New Delhi.
Under the deal, the US defence major Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft, will have to invest 30 per cent of the contract amount for setting up defence facilities in India, they said.
As per the procurement procedure, offsets clause entails that a vendor winning a defence deal worth over Rs 300 crore has to reinvest at least 30 per cent of the deal amount in Indian defence, homeland security or civilian aerospace sectors.
The deal, which amounts to over Rs 18,000 crore, would be the biggest-ever defence contract to be entered with the US.
Prior to this, the biggest deal with the US was worth USD 2.1 billion for procurement of eight P-8I maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft from Boeing through direct commercial sales in 2009.
Boeing, along with another US company Lockheed Martin, had recently failed to qualify in a bid for procurement of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the IAF, which had upset the Americans.
The MMRCAs are likely to cost India over USD 11 billion.
Washington had, however, then said that strategic ties with India would not be overshadowed by exclusion of the two American companies from the Indian fighter contract and the bilateral defence dialogue between the two nations would work on enhancing cooperation in cutting edge technology.
India is planning to procure the aircraft for augmenting its fleet, which now comprises Russian-made transport aircraft Ilyushin-76 and Antonov-32.
After finalising the initial deal for 10 aircraft, the IAF is also planning to place orders for additional six C-17s.
The C-17 will be the second American airlifter in the IAF transport fleet, which recently inducted the C-130 J Super Hercules.
The four-engine C-17 aircraft can lift two T-90 tanks and artillery guns and are used for rapid strategic airlift of troops and cargo to operating bases throughout the world.
It can also perform tactical airlift, medical evacuation and airdrop missions.
The aircraft has the capacity to carry over 130 fully- equipped combat ready troops.
However, the aircraft would come with some important communication equipment in absence of the contentious Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) with the US.
In the recent past, India had finalised defence deals worth over USD eight billion, including the C-130J, C-17, P-8I and Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Several more multi-billion dollar deals are in the pipeline for being cleared in the near future.
source: http://www.ddinews.gov.in/Homepage/Homepage+-+Top+Story/ccs.htm
