Improving Intelligence: Catch up faster in war against terror

July 25, 2008���9 blasts in Bangalore; July 26, 2008���21 blasts killed 55 in Ahmedabad ; September 13, 2008���5 blasts rocked the capital and killed over 30 in Delhi and October 30, 2008���13 blasts in Assam killed 66. It is common knowledge that on-the-spot situation is worse than the numbers reported but far more painful is the government���s despondency in statements like ���India is a billion-plus country; we cannot have police at all the places ... all the time��� .

And the worst was a claim that ���central agency had provided the government with all the information in Delhi but what was not available was the timing, the place and the method to be used for the purpose��� !
There can be no two opinions that it is the function of ���Intelligence��� to ensure efficient and effective deployment of its forces, to discover the enemy���s (terrorist���s ) diabolic designs and then thwart the execution of those plans. Therefore, government���s considered statements merely point to ���failure of Intelligence��� .

But, political parties and the media continue to discuss the involvement of certain groups, inadequacy of legislations to curb terrorism and carving out of another ministry for internal security.

Terrorists work against the interests of mankind and cannot be said to have any religion . They are simply anti-human . Therefore , Indian Penal Code (IPC), CrPC and our other legislations meant for sane people living in the country, cannot be effective in handling terrorism. In fact, fight against terrorism is a ���war��� ��� it does not call for any fairness, legislative or otherwise. And, ���ministry for internal security��� is like creating another ���court��� for politicians and bureaucrats to volley the ���porous borders phenomenon��� . Under these circumstances, action on the ground is perhaps the best way to go forward.

Multiplicity of agencies in our bureaucracy with some overlap of roles and inadequate coordination among them is an obstacle that we must overcome. For instance, we have a plethora of verification records for issuing passports, driving licenses, ration cards, voter IDs, for opening bank accounts and also for telephone subscriptions . Besides, we have records at municipalities , schools, colleges, hotels, hospitals and the list goes on.

And above all, we capture the dynamic details for movement of men, material and vehicles by air, rail and road. Improving on Intelligence requires that every bit of such information quickly reaches the nodal or central agency and is available for analysis, synthesis and for deriving actionable leads.

Our banks and telcos have demonstrated considerable ���responsiveness��� by painstakingly building up their network of branches and touch-points for reaching out to the consumers to disseminate information and to capture consumers��� requests and complaints . This is further backed by strong IT and telecom networking to swiftly carry that information to the decision makers. Building up security Intelligence will also require such investments in IT, telecom and networking to instantly reach the field information to the nodal agency.

Next, an information system is said to be no better than those operating it and using it. We therefore, need an alert, efficient and motivated workforce to capture and upload the field information and then qualified experts in various disciplines, to do the number crunching, data mining and mapping to outsmart the anti-human , anti-social elements. This requires attracting the best talent and retaining them by keeping them motivated.

In today���s world, this can only be achieved by paying competitive salaries. ���Better Intelligence��� demands and deserves to be one of the highest paid jobs, to minimise the possibility of members compromising on their duties for monetary lures. And, even if higher salaries mean employees are willing to take higher on-the-job risks, there is no danger of any ���subprime lending crises��� in the area of Intelligence. Risk-taking protectors will only make the security systems more robust.

Thus, investment in technology to upgrade the IT and telecom network for speedy capture, transfer and processing of information; and competitive salaries to the talented workforce, making each one justify his or her earning by delivering ���performance��� , can be effective tools to improve our ���Intelligence��� .

(Author is an alumnus of IIM-B. Views are personal.)