National Technical Research Organisation

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(Redirected from National Technical Facilities Organisation)

The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) is a premier apex scientific organization under the National Security Advisor in the Prime Minister's Office, India.^[1] It was set up in 2004.^[2] It also includes National Institute of Cryptology Research and Development (NICRD), which is first of its kind in Asia. ^[3]

[edit] History

The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) {originally known as the National Technical Facilities Organization (NTFO)} is a highly specialized technical intelligence gathering agency. While the agency does not affect the working of technical wings of various intelligence agencies, including those of the Indian Armed Forces, it acts as a super-feeder agency for providing technical intelligence to other agencies on internal and external security. The agency is under the control of India's external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing, although it remains autonomous to some degree. The Group of Ministers (GOM) headed by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani had recommended the constitution of the NTFO as a state-of-the-art technical wing of intelligence gathering. Due to security concerns, the recommendation along with such other matters were not made public when the GOM report was published. The organization does hi-tech surveillance jobs, including satellite monitoring, terrestrial monitoring, internet monitoring, considered vital for the national security apparatus. The NTRO would require over Rs 700 crore (7 billion rupees) to procure different hi-tech equipment from specialized agencies around the globe to become fully functional. The officials have identified countries from where such gadgets could be procured but refused to reveal them due to "security and other implications." The Government had been working in this direction after the Kargil war in 1999 when the Subrahmanyam committee report pointed out weaknesses in intelligence gathering in the national security set up.^[4] Sources said the road-map for constitution of the National Technical Facilities Organization was prepared by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam in October 2001 when he was the Principal Scientific Adviser. It was subsequently mentioned in the Group of Ministers report on internal security.

[edit] Activities

The organization develops technology capabilities in aviation and remote sensing, data gathering and processing, cyber security, cryptology systems, strategic hardware and software development and strategic monitoring.^[5]

It is believed that it deals with imagery and communications intelligence using various platforms, including satellites. It is believed that the NTRO with ISRO launched the Technology Experiment Satellite. The Indian Infrastructure Protection Centre, an agency to monitor and assess threats to crucial infrastructure and other vital installations has also been set up under the National Technical Research Organisation. The Technology Experiment Satellite (TES) has a pan chromatic camera for remote sensing. The camera is which is capable of producing images of 1 Metre resolution. 1 m resolution means the camera is able to distinguish between two objects which are separated at least a metre. The launch of TES made India the second country in the world after the USA that commercially offers images with one metre resolution. It is used for remote sensing of civilian areas , mapping industry and geographical information services.