• Natgrid (National Intelligence Grid) is a centralized surveillance and intelligence platform in India, designed to integrate multiple government and private databases for real-time access by security agencies.
• NATGRID connects 21 databases covering telecom, banking, travel, immigration, and tax records, allowing 11 central agencies like IB, RAW, and CBI real-time access for intelligence gathering.
• Legal experts and civil liberty advocates highlighted NATGRID (National Intelligence Grid) as a "search engine of digital authoritarianism" due to its rapid expansion into a mass surveillance infrastructure including routine policing and NPR integration for individual profiling on 1.19 billion residents. 

• The Catalyst: The failure to track David Headley’s multiple reconnaissance trips to India highlighted that while data (visas, travel, hotels) existed, it was scattered across disconnected silos.
• Initial Approval: In 2009, then-Home Minister P. Chidambaram proposed NATGRID as a middleware platform to "stitch together" these fragments. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) officially approved the ₹3,400 crore project in 2011.
• Original Mandate: It was designed to allow 11 central agencies (such as IB, R&AW, and NIA) to query 21 categories of data including banking, immigration, and telecommunications. 

• Operational Activation: The system went live on December 31, 2020. By January 2026, it handles approximately 45,000 data requests monthly.
• Widened User Base: Originally restricted to central agencies, access was expanded in 2025 to Superintendent of Police (SP)-rank officers across all Indian states to strengthen ground-level investigations.
• New Data Streams: The platform now integrates advanced datasets, including Aadhaar registration, FASTag, airline Passenger Name Records (PNR), and social media activity.
• NCRB Integration: A 2020 MoU with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) gave NATGRID access to the CCTNS database, linking it to over 14,000 police stations nationwide for real-time access to FIRs and stolen vehicle records. 

• NPR Integration: In late 2025/early 2026, NATGRID was linked with the National Population Register (NPR), providing authorized agencies real-time access to family-level demographic data of nearly 119 crore residents.
• AI Tool 'Gandiva': The system now utilizes Gandiva, an indigenous AI-based analytical tool for facial recognition, entity resolution (linking different records to the same person), and pattern recognition for "predictive intelligence".
• Digital Authoritarianism Concerns: Critics argue this transformation shifts the focus from "targeted intelligence" to "mass surveillance". Because NATGRID was created via executive action rather than parliamentary legislation, it lacks a statutory framework and independent oversight, raising significant privacy concerns under the Right to Privacy (Puttaswamy) judgment. 

• Encoded Prejudice: Policing in India historically reflects biases based on caste, religion, and geography. Algorithms trained on these "dirty" datasets harden these inequities, cloaking them in a veneer of mathematical objectivity.
• Existential Vulnerability: For affluent citizens, a "false positive" match is often an administrative nuisance; however, for marginalized groups (such as young men in minority neighborhoods), an automated "hit" can trigger prolonged detention or physical harm without immediate recourse.
• Facial Recognition Errors: Internal reviews have noted roughly 15% false positive rates in facial recognition, which disproportionately affect individuals with darker skin tones or those from specific ethnic backgrounds. 

• Administrative Rituals: NATGRID now processes approximately 45,000 queries per month. While officials highlight "query logging" as a safeguard, the sheer volume makes independent scrutiny nearly impossible. Without autonomous oversight, logging becomes a "clerical ritual" rather than real accountability.
• Ubiquity over Omniscience: The danger is no longer just being watched for a specific crime, but the ubiquitous presence of surveillance in daily life. This scale fosters an "architecture of suspicion" where every citizen's financial, travel, and social data is subject to routine algorithmic risk assessment.
• Mission Creep: Originally designed for high-level counter-terrorism, NATGRID has expanded into routine policing and civil cases. This "function creep" allows state-level officers down to the Superintendent of Police (SP) rank to use the platform for everyday investigations, often without a registered FIR. 

• Lack of Statutory Framework: NATGRID continues to operate under executive orders rather than a law passed by Parliament. This denies citizens any statutory right to contest "algorithmic labels" or seek redress for errors.
• DPDP Act Exemptions: Broad exemptions under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, prevent individuals from exercising their rights to correction or grievance when their data is processed for national security, further weakening protections against algorithmic harm. 

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