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The topic for next week's forum which is to appear on Saturday is:

Are Indians really victimised abroad?
Submit your reply in 100 words: editor@centralchronicle.com

 
 
Central Chronicle had asked its readers:
Does India need a high-tech intelligence network?
Following are the responses:
 
Dr Suram Singh Verma: Any type of network is a welcome but all these networks should be uniform in nature and not personality (political and bureaucratic) specific. There are a number of intelligence networks already working in the country but their area of influence/effectiveness is limited to common man only.

All such networks seem to have been developed and implemented only to harass a common man whereas almost all ills (social and security) in the country, one or the other way have final origination from politician or bureaucrats of the country. Need is to make all the existing intelligence systems in the country more uniform and same to all people concerned and there should be no relaxation in norms when it comes to the security of common man in general and the nation in particular.

Only technology is not the solution of all failures because technology is also developed and controlled by humans and high-tech systems will also be effective when humans who will control the system would like to make them effective.

RK Gupta: In the era of globalization and privatization, India has emerged as one of the biggest economies of the world, with tremendous industrial growth. India, the superpower in software in Information Technology, has many internal and external enemies who are overtly and covertly engaged in subversion of the economy and the communal harmony of the nation. India has indigenously developed the nuclear and the space technology, and being the biggest democracy of the world, having to play a greater role in the socio-political arena of the world, hence a high-tech intelligence network is indispensable to defend the country.

Syed Zia Ul Hasan Naqvi: The fear of lurking danger of terrorist attacks has deleterious effect on the community life throughout the country. For lapses in the security of public and property, security measures are being decried every now and then not merely by the intellectuals but by every class of people. Terrorism in the country has become so formidable that every individual is demanding from the government foolproof security system for his life and property.

It is true for the purpose of combating terrorism India should have a high tech intelligence network in the country. Apart from this government should also sincerely try to probe the reasons of terrorism. Because it is often said that a criminal is a victim of circumstances, so it is essential that for eradicating terrorism we should know the root cause of it and find a cure for it. Every Indian should be a patriot and vigilant. For peace and tranquility in the country, government should be honest and justice should be given to every Indian liberally. Merely by severe punishment or hi-tech intelligence network we cannot overcome the menace of terrorism.

Sharad Bailur: What India needs is a high quality intelligence network that includes the use of technology. It is necessary to deal with present issues including a constant barrage of terrorist activity and future activity to aid the long-term strategic needs of India. Much also needs to be done to tighten the laws against terrorist activity. Terrorists caught in the act or convicted after a fair trial should be encouraged to give up all the information that they have and then shot for treason as part of a mandatory process. No long-term terrorist prisoners should be held in jails. This will ensure that India cannot be blackmailed into giving them up for hostages taken by future terrorist groups. Second India needs to improve and expand its humint especially aimed at terrorist groups. Third a concerted effort is needed to trace, hunt down and emasculate all terrorist funding. Fourth, a high level of cooperation is needed to be established between Indian Intelligence both internal and external and Mossad and Shin Bet in Israel. Lastly India must not allow internal agencies or forces, political or otherwise, to delay the acquisition of sophisticated equipment.

SS Chitwadgi: Yes, India needs certainly a high-tech intelligence. The Central Chronicle dated November 24 page 5 lists major bombings. Every blast takes toll of several lives and crores of worth property. By way of compensation crores of rupees are sanctioned to the victims.

To add to this many suffer that kind of trauma which no amount of money could compensate. The governments both at the State and Centre are under acute pressure and often police personnel are killed. In order to maintain peace it is the duty of good government to keep a high-tech intelligence network to safeguard the lives and property of the subjects who depend on it.

These are the days when digital science has developed so much so that it is possible to check the terrorists' anti-national activities of destruction. Every possible efforts need be taken to train the personnel on intelligence to be free from this anti-national menace which is engineered by a few who are equally equipped with modern digital appliances and are united in purpose with equipment secretly trained some where else.

The intelligence network should be trained and equipped so as to match the termination of this menace. If we do not do so probably the terrorists will dominate the country and bring an everlasting setback in our progress. This is to be taken as a warning and unfortunately even advanced countries like Britain and USA are also victimized by terrorist nefarious misdeeds. As a global activity terrorists' activities need to be halted through central network of intelligence.

Anita Purohit: Yes definitely India needs a high-tech intelligence network. We have read about bomb blasts in UP, previously in Ajmer, Delhi and in other cities. Terrorists have also attacked Akshar Dham, Ahmedabad and Raghunath Mandir in Jammu.

There are many Bagladeshi and Pakistanis living in India without permission and they commit crimes. Many times police arrested them for different crimes then they accepted that they are living in India illegally.

In Bhopal the police found an illegal arms factory in BHEL area.

Apart from terrorist attacks there were cases of fake currency also.

All these incidents show lack of our intelligence network. Sometimes it also happens that the Intelligence had raised suspicions of any such incident but the local authorities did not take it seriously. So there is need of a high-tech intelligence network as well as coordination between local authorities and intelligence to foil the plans of misled people.

Satish Kumar Singh: Certainly, India needs a high-tech intelligence network and I think for this management information system may be helpful, because the concept of MIS places particular emphasis on the availability of data and the ease with which it can analyze and turned into meaningful information for every kind of decision-making. Thus the key element in any MIS is the transformation of data into information. Another factor that assumes significance is the timeliness of information, lest it loses its significance. As such, the system has to be such which furnishes the assignment with current information. Basically in India two Intelligence services are working. First is IB (Intelligence Bureau) and second one is RAW (Research & Analysis Wing). IB is working in India whereas RAW is working outside India. Main function of IB is collecting information which may be fatal for the Indian citizens and disseminates them among the concerned departments so that the depts. can take timely action and prevent terrorist activities. Similarly RAW watches on the terrorist activities outside India which may create problems for India. Latest explosions in different cities of UP is just repercussion of non-compliance of information which had been given by the IB to the State Govt. This event also exposes that we do not have a high tech Intelligence Network and this is a proven fact as we have already seen the poor performance of the IB and the RAW. Today even the terrorist bodies are equipped with latest technology whereas our police does not have it. In fact we need to bring massive changes in our Intelligence bodies. At present information given by our Intelligence bodies do not reach up to the right place. Our sleuths are also not properly trained. Also, there is no coordination among the State intelligence and national level intelligence bodies. The police stations do not have computer system. They are still working with walki-talkie and wireless sets. We need high -tech intelligence because terrorist activities have registered rise. Network of ISI is expanding all over India.

RJ Khurana: It depends on the challenges before us. For a country like India that faces formidable problems particularly terrorism whose practitioners are bent upon turning India into a hell both humint (human intelligence) and techint that includes sigint (technical and signal intelligence) are extremely important. Where humint can work we should be at our best and where techint can work we should be in possession of the state-of -the-art technology. The USA has a very high level of techint and yet in 1998, it could not detect that India was planning to detonate nuclear devices.

Also it could not get beforehand intelligence in respect of the plans of the attackers of the Twin Towers in New York. This happened just because it relied too heavily on techint and neglected humint. In the dangerous time we live in when our enemies have acquired sophisticated techint, it is imperative that we are one up on them to defeat their nefarious designs. But humint should not be ignored just because we have acquired a higher level of techint. India must frequently review and upgrade both its techint and humint capabilities to keep ahead of those who have evil designs on us.

Sushmita Shrivastava: Yes, India needs high-tech intelligence network in the light of increasing terrorist threat. Terrorists are expanding their activities and today no place is safe from terrorist strike. They are looking for soft targets and the intelligence network in India is hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with them. After the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center the world's outlook towards terrorism and terrorist organisations has changed. The Indian outlook also changed specially after the December 13 attack on the Parliament which is seen as a symbol of our democracy. Then it also became necessary to enforce a law, which would be more stringent so that the terrorist cannot go scot-free. We need an efficient and hi-tech network as a weapon against the rising terrorist activities. India is facing multifarious challenges in the management of its internal security. There is an upsurge of terrorist activities, intensification of cross- border terrorist activities and insurgent groups in different parts of the country is a big challenge. Terrorism has now acquired global dimensions and has become the challenge for the whole world. The reach and methods adopted by terrorist groups and organisations take advantage of modern means of communication and technology using high-tech facilities available in the form of communication system, transport, sophisticated arms and various other means. This has enabled them to strike and create terror among people at will. As terrorists are using hi-tech facilities, the security network must quickly modernize and become well-organized and resourceful to deal with terrorist activities.

Krishna Chander Mouli: India has intelligence and wisdom in abundance. The country does not lack in intelligence network also. But, high-tech intelligence would definitely be a value addition and a country like ours, which is facing internal and external threats, jehadi terrorist attacks, suicide bombers and the recent bicycle blasts, very badly needs a high-tech intelligence network.

However the problem with our intelligence is not the lack of network, but, as I assess intelligence surveillance is not done by our various intelligence agencies and their network on a regular sustainable basis.

Their working is not pro-active. Only whenever a chaotic and disturbing situation is created the intelligence agencies activate themselves to deal with such situation making loud and gaudy announcements of red alert and tightening of the security etc. This is where we are failing every time. Our intelligence has not been able to prevent disasters. They have only been indulging in fire fighting exercises.

The security agencies supported by our intelligence network have therefore got to change their routine style because the 2lst century situations are bizarre and the criminal network is also highly scientific and advanced with equally highly educated and sophisticated lot organisisng such crimes. The bigger the criminal the higher is his and his gang's white-collared status.

In the days when even senior politicians, top executive, the judiciary whom the society revers as matured law makers, implementors and interpretators are unbelievably and suddenly caught having links with criminal network. Routine intelligence would be of little help in the security of the country and its people. Thus it is not the high-tech intelligence network alone that is needed for the country but an equally high-tech personnel with commitment who are required to operate such a network.

Dr Visal A Khan: India needs to introduce new measures to make it a preferred location for manufacturing high tech computer chips and other high-tech goods, its finance minister announced on Tuesday. The absence of large-scale semiconductor manufacturing in the country has been a weak spot in India's advancement as a centre for high-tech development.

It is clear from recent events of New York, Madrid, Bali, London, Ireland, and Israel that terrorist attacks can be successful anywhere in the world despite the best efforts of security personnel to thwart them. Fortunately for us in South Africa we have a more neutral stance in regard to terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and as a country we are not involved, and will not become involved in any of America's wars destined to bring 'democracy' to countries that do not really want it. We can thus sleep peacefully and need only be more cautious and aware when travelling. Hi-tech Intelligent Object Detection and Intelligent Motion Detection are two features that actively alert security personnel to incidents so they can turn their attention to the relevant camera.

Controlled access to restricted areas is vital High-tech intelligence network to minimize terrorism. Detection identifies items, such as bags that have been left unattended or abandoned cars, and trigger the appropriate alarm. Intelligent Motion Detection distinguishes between multiple moving subjects and environmental conditions, such as swaying trees, therefore reducing the number of motion-related false alarms. As this functionality appears in-camera, as opposed to in the control room, workflow, storage and bandwidth utilization are optimized. Secondly, it has a panic button which allows for instant communication with the control room in the case of an emergency. This is a major safety and security benefit for guards, who can derive additional peace of mind from a radio facility that facilitates two-way voice communication between employee and control station. In the event that the guard fails to reach a certain point at a certain time, the control room immediately knows something is wrong and can take relevant action. It is high time to get together of all the peace loving countries of the world to fight terrorism and India need to participate High-tech intelligence network integrally.

RK Kutty: Of course, as the requirement of intelligence network must changes from time to time according to the need/requirement of time. In 1962, when the Chinese intruded much deep into the Indian territory, it was lack of intelligence to know well in advance that helped the Chinese to intrude such deep into our territory. The populace then living in the NEFA now known as the State of Arunachal Pradesh were almost similar to that of the populace of the Chinese both of the Mongol race. The then Indian leadership was not giving that much importance to having a strong Intelligence network, as the primary goal of them was to improve the living condition of the large multitude of India. The Chinese intrusion suddenly made the leaders to think over the need of having strong intelligence network.

It was then that one of the pioneers of Indian Intelligence - BN Mullick came up with the plan of opening up a strong interactive force, specifically placed in our sensitive border areas. The basic idea was to recruit young boys of the same area, give them training, free food, medical facilities. By winning over them, and then with their help to win over the local populace, so as to make them aware of the need of having strong nationalism vis-Ã -vis protect the territorial integrity of the nation. The scheme worked to a great extent as the organization thus opened later became a strong Para-Military force which is now a part of the Home Ministry.

Now, that the country has several intelligence agencies like the IB, SIB, and R&AW. During the NDA rule, before the Kargil war occurred, it was reported that the IB gave authentic information about the troop build up in J&K and warned the govt to take precautions, but the govt overlooked and did not take preventive action. If the Intelligence agencies are provided with high-tech intelligence net-works, they would perform more sensibly and sensitively. In these days, when the anti-social elements and terrorist outfits are developing more advanced networks, our intelligence agencies must be prepared to face these challenges with most modern network. As on date, Israel's Mossad is reported to be the most advanced intelligence agency that collects the most authentic intelligence, right in time to counter any threat.

 
 
 
The winners of the forum on:
Should India have a two-party system for better governance?

are: First Shantanu , Second K Rajesh , Third Madhu Agrawal

 
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