Member • Dec 15, 2013
'Netra' Is Indian Government's Internet Spy System That Does Your Network's Traffic Analysis
To be deployed soon, NETRA is a software network developed by India's Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory, and is used by the Intelligence Bureau, India's domestic intelligence agency, and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the country's external intelligence agency to intercept and analyse internet traffic using pre-defined filters. The Netra is an Indian, light-weight, autonomous UAV for surveillance and reconnaissance operations. It has been jointly developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation's Research and Development Establishment (R&DE), and IdeaForge, a Mumbai-based private firm.
Netra can be launched from a small clearing, and it can fly up to a distance of 2.5 km from its take-off point. The operational altitude of the UAV is 200 m. With an on-board wireless transmitter, it can carry out surveillance in an area of 1.5 km Line of Sight (LOS) at the height of 300 m, for 30 minutes on a single battery charge. DRDO Scientist Dr. G. Athithan of CAIR and his team were awarded the 'Agni award for excellence in self-reliance 2008' for developing NETRA. The team comprised scientists from Indian Institute of Science, G.Ravindra and Rahul M. Kharge
Now, monitoring Internet traffic on a real-time basis has become a must for Government of India as measure taken against the rapidly escalating threats posed by terrorist and criminal elements using data communication, which had brought service providers like BlackBerry, Skype and Gmail into the focus of law enforcement agencies. The NETRA system with RAW, analyses large amount of international data which crosses through the internet networks in India. Three security agencies, which include the IB and RAW, have each been allotted a maximum of 300 Gigabytes (GB) for storing intercepted internet traffic, and an extra 100 GB is assigned to the remaining law enforcement agencies.
The debate is - Whether your Internet traffic being constantly monitored is something that appeals to the masses? What is your stand on Netra being employed for surveillance of your conversations? Share your thoughts in replies below.