NTRO station set up in Chhattisgarh

The country’s specialised spy department, NTRO has set up its first base in a in Chhattisgarh. The station can monitor the movement of armed Maoist cadres and fly ten Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to help security forces to track them.
This key project has been operationalised with the establishment of five satellite-linked terminal stations at a designated location in the state by the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) with the help of paramilitary CRPF. Sources involved in the technical department of the base station said CRPF has now linked the operations of its ten UAVs with the new NTRO facility which will function round-the-clock. The NTRO station will act as a gateway for acquiring satellite data and pass them on to ground patrol parties. The UAVs can then be operated in specified areas.

The centre also has the facility to analyse information about geographical features, weather, available troop reinforcements and logistics before the on-field commanders undertake an operation, they said. The facility, which is manned by NTRO-trained CRPF ’Signals’ officials, will also share intelligence and geographical information with the NTRO headquarter in Delhi.

The activation of the five V-SAT terminals for NTRO is expected to provide an edge to security force operations in difficult terrains where Maoist ambushes and IED blasts are a major threat to the troops. The UAVs can be given real time satellite information through the centre.

ABOUT NTRO:

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

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 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.

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.
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.

NTRO along with a scientific non-profit foundation Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) in November 2011 initiated the National Security Database (NSD) project as a prestigious accreditation program to identify credible & trustworthy Information security experts with proven skills to protect the National Critical Infrastructure & economy of the country.