New Delhi, Jul 6 (PTI) The NATGRID, which shares real-time information for intelligence services and investigations with law-enforcement agencies, has asked all state police forces to enhance their engagements with it and proactively use its database for crime control and checking criminal activities.

The NATGRID, which comes under the direct control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), shares with 11 central agencies and all state police forces real-time information from its database on terror activities, organised criminal gangs, financial transactions, immigration, circulation of counterfeit currency and narcotics, besides other inputs.

In a letter to the police chiefs of all states, Piyush Goyal, Chief Executive Officer of the NATGRID, has requested them to enhance the usage in their respective forces to increase the number of active users and encourage them to effectively utilise the NATGRID solution.

The letter specifically emphasised on encouraging the district superintendents of police (SPs) for a wider use of the NATGRID database in their crime-control and law-enforcement initiatives.

"This may please be reviewed in your meetings periodically. NATGRID is continuing to augment more features/functionalities in the solution and conducting regular training/feedback sessions," Goyal said in the letter.

He said the NATGRID can additionally organise dedicated training sessions for police officers, wherever required.

The letter said with collaborative efforts, many new users have started using the system proactively and there has been a significant increase in the usage of NATGRID solution.

"I would like to highlight and commend the consistent usage of NATGRID solution by Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Assam, which are the top performers for the period Jan-Jun 2025," Goyal said in the letter.

Besides these states, he also appreciated the efforts made by Tamil Nadu, which enhanced "the number of active users who have fired at least one query in a month" by four times in June, with the resultant significant increase in their usage of the system as well.

Conceptualised after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the NATGRID disseminates information to agencies like the IB, R&AW, CBI, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Enforcement Directorate, besides others.

It has a database of more than 20 categories like railways, banks, airlines, credit-card companies and immigration.

The work on the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) was accelerated after Amit Shah became the Union home minister in 2019, officials said.

The necessity for the NATGRID came after the worst terror attack in India's history in the country's commercial capital in 2008 exposed the deficiency that security agencies had no mechanism to look for vital information on real time.

The lack of real-time information was considered to be one of the major hurdles in detecting US terror suspect David Headley's movement across the country during his multiple visits between 2006 and 2009.

Headley provided key information and videos of terror targets to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which carried out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks that claimed 166 lives.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had given its approval to the Rs 3,400 crore project on April 8, 2010 but its work slowed down after 2012.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has realised the importance of the key security project and directed its revival, the officials said. PTI ACB RC

Real-time intelligence sharing urged for wider police adoption and training to enhance crime control and proactive database use. NATGRID directed state police to expand engagement and proactive use of its real-time intelligence database for crime control, urging greater numbers of active users and district-level adoption. The agency offered dedicated training, regular feature enhancements and feedback sessions to improve utilisation, highlighted recent increases in queries, and described the platform as aggregating over twenty data categories to support interagency detection of terror, organised crime, financial crime, counterfeiting and narcotics.