National Technical Facilities Organisation

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NTFO is a secret agency under Research and Analysis Wing in India. It is believed that it deals with imagery and communications intelligence using various platforms, including satellites. It is believed that the NTFO with ISRO launched the Technology Experiment Satellite.The organisation is also referred to as "National Technical Research Organisation", NTRO.

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.

A highly specialised technical intelligence gathering agency, National Technical Facilities Organisation [NTFO], has been created by the government. While the agency would not affect the working of technical wings of various intelligence agencies, including those of armed forces, it will act as a super-feeder agency for providing technical intelligence to other agencies on internal and external security. The Group of Ministers[GOM] headed by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani had recommended constitution of the NTFO as a state-of-the-art technical wing of intelligence gathering. Due to security concerns, the recommendation along with such other matters were not made public when the GOM report was published. The organisation will do hi-tech surveillance jobs, including satellite monitoring, terrestrial monitoring, internet monitoring, considered vital for the national security apparatus. With the appointment of R S Bedi the cell has started working. the NTFO would require over Rs 700 crore [7 billion rupees] to procure different hi-tech equipment from specialised 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 proposal for budgetary and manpower support has been sent to top officials and is expected to be cleared soon. The government had been working in this direction after the Kargil war in 1999 when the Subramanium committee report pointed out weaknesses in intelligence gathering in the national security set up. Sources said the roadmap for constitution of the National Technical Facilities Organisation was prepared by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam in October 2001 when he was the Principal Scientific Advisor. It was subsequently mentioned in the Group of Ministers report on internal security. Sources said Deputy Prime Minister had been keen to ensure that recommendations made by the Group of Ministers be implemented as soon as possible

[edit] Refrences

• www.fas.org