Bangalore: The Indian Government is all but set to launch ‘Netra’; a NEtwork TRaffic Analysis system for Internet surveillance for the Defense Ministry, according to The Economic Times. This new system will be able to detect words like ‘bomb’, ‘attack’, ‘blast’ or ‘kill’ in a matter of seconds from all over the Internet. The system also seems to be able to capture suspicious voice activity passing through various chat services like Skype, Google Talk and others.

It’ll work by intercepting and examining messages and deducing information from patterns in communication, this can also be performed on encrypted messages. The 'Netra' Internet surveillance system has been developed by Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR), a lab under Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), Bangalore. Reports indicate that the Home Ministry is planning to approach DRDO to allocate more manpower to CAIR to formulate a strategy for tracking internet use.

"Intelligence Bureau and Cabinet Secretariat are currently testing 'Netra', which will be deployed by all national security agencies. The specifications of the 'Netra' system can be taken as frozen following tests by the Intelligence Bureau and Cabinet Secretariat, and can be considered for providing multiple user access to security agencies," said a telecom department note.

Netra will be a sizeable upgrade to the Government’s already existing Internet surveillance plan, ‘Centralized Monitoring System’ that is already monitoring the activities Indian netizens. With the deployment of Netra the Government is hoping to have a national Internet scanning and coordination centre, a department which is already existing in countries like UK, US, China and Iran.

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