The National Intelligence Network (NATGRID), a secure platform for police and investigative agencies to access government and private databases in real-time, has been linked with the National Population Register (NPR), which contains family details of India’s 119 million people, government officials said.
The Union Home Ministry is pushing for greater use of NATGRID by state police and other central law and security agencies for intelligence gathering and for speedy investigation of criminal cases through indigenous and secure platforms.
The Hindu reported on December 7 that NATGRID receives an average of around 45,000 requests per month. The platform, accessible only to security agencies, was launched last year after being first conceptualized in 2009 following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Data for the NPR, which stores information for a family, was first collected in 2010 in the first phase of the census in 2011 and was last updated in 2015 through a door-to-door enumeration. It was to be further updated during the 2021 census, which was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 12 December, when the Union Cabinet approved the proposal to conduct Census 2027 at a cost of ₹11,718 crore, there was no separate allocation for the NPR and earlier on 29 July, the government had informed the Lok Sabha that no decision had been taken to update the NPR during the upcoming census exercise.
The NPR is the first step towards creating a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC).
On December 9, the ministry informed the Lok Sabha that an organized crime network database is being developed on the NATGRID IT platform to facilitate secure data sharing between the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the State Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). The response states that NATGRID’s upgraded tools, particularly “Gandiva”, support the collection and analysis of data from multiple sources.
Elaborating on Gandiva, a state police official said details of all family members of a suspect or person of interest, if available on NPR, can be obtained through the platform. Gandiva can be used for face recognition and entity discrimination.
NATGRID will have access to a database that links around 14,000 police stations
The government will link the National Intelligence Grid with the National Population Register
| Video Credit: The Hindu
“If a suspect’s image is available, it can be fed into Gandiva. If any photo ID like telecom KYC or vehicle registration or driving license matches the photo, Gandiva can provide the details, saving the investigator’s time and resources,” the official said.
The official added that the application was classified into three categories: non-sensitive, sensitive and highly sensitive. Bank statements, financial transactions, tax information, export and import data were classified as highly sensitive information, the official said.
When asked about privacy concerns, as the police and security agencies have access to almost all kinds of data on a citizen without having to register a First Information Report, the official said: “Every query is logged into the system. The purpose of the information sought must be stated and senior police officers oversee that. There are several checks and balances.”
The ministry has asked states to freely use the platform to access data sets that include driving license details, vehicle registration, Aadhaar, airline details, bank records, FASTAG, passport and travel data of foreigners and Indians, suspicious transaction reports from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), railway passengers and also extract and analyze data from social media posts.
Access to NATGRID is so far available to a senior police officer, whereas earlier it was supposed to be accessible only to ten central agencies such as Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, NIA, Enforcement Directorate, FIU, Narcotics Control Bureau and Intelligence Revenue Directorate.
Published – 25 Dec 2025 20:04 IST
