National Technical Research Organisation

The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) is a technical intelligence agency of India. It was set up in 2004. The agency reports to the National Security Advisor and to the Prime Minister's Office. NTRO also comprises the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre and the National Institute of Cryptology Research and Development.

NTRO has the same "norms of conduct" as the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).

The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), originally known as the National Technical Facilities Organisation (NTFO), is a highly specialised technical intelligence gathering agency. While the agency does not affect the working of technical wings of various intelligence agencies, including those of the Indian Armed Forces, it acts as a super-feeder agency for providing technical intelligence to other agencies on internal and external security. The Group of Ministers (GOM) headed by then Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani had recommended the 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 does hi-tech surveillance jobs, including satellite monitoring, terrestrial monitoring, internet monitoring, considered vital for the national security apparatus. The NTRO would require over ₹700 crore (US$83 million) 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 Government had been working in this direction after the Kargil war in 1999 when the Subrahmanyam committee report pointed out weaknesses in intelligence gathering in the national security set up. Sources said the road-map 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 Adviser. It was subsequently mentioned in the Group of Ministers report on internal security.

In October 2004, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approved setting up of NTRO, a spy organisation for technical intelligence, modelled on the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States, which would be the repository of the country's technical intelligence (TECHINT) assets—spy satellites, UAVs and spy planes.

The agency specialises in multiple disciplines, which include remote sensing, SIGINT, data gathering and processing, cyber security, geospatial information gathering, cryptology, strategic hardware and software development and strategic monitoring.

The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre, an agency under the control of National Technical Research Organisation, has been created to monitor, intercept and assess threats to crucial infrastructure and other vital installations from intelligence gathered using sensors and platforms which include satellites, underwater buoys, drones, VSAT-terminal locators and fiber-optic cable nodal tap points.^{[citation needed]}

It also includes National Institute of Cryptology Research and Development (NICRD), which is first of its kind in Asia.

NTRO operates the Technology Experiment Satellite (TES), Cartosat-2A, EMISAT and Cartosat-2B besides two Radar Imaging Satellites namely RISAT-1 & RISAT-2. RISAT-2 was acquired from Israel at a cost $110 million and placed into orbit using a PSLV launcher in 2009.^{[citation needed]}