India to set up internal security center

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NEW DELHI, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- India is starting an internal security center similar to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to coordinate intelligence and law-enforcement agencies.

"The proposal, which has been doing the rounds of security agencies, has now received the nod from both Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing and has come back to the Interior Ministry," said a report in The Times of India newspaper Friday.

It said the proposal was prepared by experts working at the Indian Institute of Technology in the northern Indian city of Kanpur. The proposed center would maintain a database for all citizens, with records of their profession, birthplace, residential address and foreign visits.

"The center will deal with the internal security issues like those requiring scientific, technical and analytical expertise," an Intelligence Bureau official said.

"The blueprint of the proposed center says it would focus on number of key areas which impact a nation's capacity to combat the modern-day terrorism like processing counter-intelligence inputs, cyber security, border and transportation and protection of vital security."

The Indian government has taken serious note of the failure of its intelligence and security agencies to have advance information about the serial bomb blasts in New Delhi on Oct. 30 that killed over 60 people and injured 210.