Ex-IIT director likely to be NATGRID chief

NATGRID was conceived in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and seeks to integrate over 20 categories of datasets from agencies like banks, railways, airlines, income tax department, credit card companies, immigration and others, and make it available to  designated law enforcement officers to enable them to track criminals. Its work was still under progress when Raghu Raman left.

Dhande is not new to the security establishment, having been appointed a member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) in 2013 by the UPA government. NSAB, a multi-disciplinary body comprising experts from outside the government, aids and advises the National Security Council housed in the Prime Minister’s Office.

The government has been deliberating on appointing a full-time chief for NATGRID for the past one month, amid a debate over whether it should be headed by a bureaucrat or somebody from the private sector.

“It is high time the NATGRID CEO is appointed as it is an important project from the point of internal security. The government is very close to selecting the name,” said a source.

The NATGRID project, which had been dropped from the government’s priority list in the last couple of years with its budget also slashed substantially in 2013, is being given a fresh lease of life by the NDA government.