India upgrades counter terror systems with AI integration

India’s counter terror network undergoes major technological overhaul driven by automation.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

The Union Home Ministry has begun to recast India’s counter terror architecture with a turn toward artificial intelligence driven intelligence systems, big data fusion centres and a wide expansion of forensic and digital surveillance capabilities, senior security officials familiar with the changes have stated.

Officials said the government is embedding technology at the core of counter terror operations, a shift driven by the rise of encrypted cross border communication, drone based networks, cryptocurrency enabled financing and online radicalisation.

As per official documents, the Multi Agency Centre (MAC), the national intelligence coordination platform under the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and its subsidiary units have been upgraded with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools that allow predictive analysis and real time correlation of inputs down to the district level. An official described the changes as the first major technological overhaul of the MAC system in years and a move toward preemptive intelligence rather than post-incident response.