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Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah addressed the valedictory session of the Intelligence Bureau's National Security Strategies Conference (NSSC) in New Delhi, a two-day conference attended by Directors General of Police of all states and representatives of central security agencies.
He said strong internal security is the first condition for the goal of a developed India by 2047, and asked the NSSC forum to look at the trends of the coming 15 to 20 years and frame preventive strategies rather than only consolidating past gains.
On criminal justice, he said 100 per cent implementation of the three new criminal laws will be achieved within the next year, enabling disposal of criminal cases up to the Supreme Court within three years and, in his statement, raising the conviction rate by 25 per cent.
On narcotics, he asked state police forces to implement the Narcotics Control Vision Document 2026-2029 on the ground and to work on three Ds - Detect, Disrupt and Destroy; on borders, he said a four-pronged border security approach document had been shared with all land-border states over the preceding eight months, with each state to designate a nodal officer not below Senior IG or Additional DG rank.
On technology, he said the Multi-Agency Centre has been upgraded, an integrated data bank of CCTNS, ICJS, NATGRID and NAFIS created, and about 274 fugitives brought back from abroad between 2019 and 2026, and urged young officers to use AI for data integration and development of actionable intelligence.
India's internal intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, functioning under the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the host of the National Security Strategies Conference. Its lineage runs to the Central Special Branch founded in 1887 under the colonial government, consolidated into a single Intelligence Bureau in 1920 - which makes it among the oldest intelligence organisations in the world.
The common platform for sharing terrorism-related intelligence between central and state agencies, operating under the Intelligence Bureau. It was created following the intelligence-coordination reforms that came after the Kargil Review Committee and the Group of Ministers on national security, with state-level counterparts (SMACs) mirroring it. The Home Minister said its technological capabilities would be scaled up fourfold.
India's apex drug law enforcement agency, constituted on 17 March 1986 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and functioning under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It coordinates the work of state police forces and central agencies against drug trafficking - the machinery the Narcotics Control Vision Document 2026-2029 is to be implemented through.
India's central counter-terrorism law-enforcement agency, set up under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. It investigates and prosecutes offences affecting the sovereignty, security and integrity of India and can take up cases across states without state consent.
Established by an Act of Parliament in 2020 and granted the status of an Institution of National Importance, it is dedicated to forensic, behavioural, cyber security and digital forensics education - central to the new criminal laws' requirement of forensic examination in serious offences.
Developer of BHARATPOL, the portal launched on 7 January 2025 that gives Indian state police and investigative agencies a real-time interface to INTERPOL - streamlining Red Notices and other colour-coded notices and access to INTERPOL databases across 195 member countries. The CBI is India's National Central Bureau for INTERPOL.
The three new criminal laws, in force from 1 July 2024, replacing the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act. The BNS defines a terrorist act as an offence in general penal law for the first time - Section 113 - covering acts intended to threaten the unity, integrity, sovereignty, security or economic security of India or to strike terror among the people. The BNSS introduces mandatory forensic examination in serious offences, time limits for investigation and trial, and provision for trial in absentia, which the Home Minister linked to the pursuit of fugitives abroad.
The special law under which organisations are declared unlawful or terrorist organisations, and under which the Popular Front of India and its associates were banned on 28 September 2022 for five years - the action cited in the address as an example of Centre-State coordination.
India's principal anti-drug law, in force from 14 November 1985, under which the Narcotics Control Bureau was constituted in 1986. It governs the offences and the enforcement machinery through which the Narcotics Control Vision Document 2026-2029 must operate.
Creates the NIA and lists the scheduled offences it may investigate, giving the Union an agency able to take over terrorism cases from state police.
The law under which areas may be declared 'disturbed' and special powers conferred on the armed forces, historically central to the North East security question. Its geographical footprint in the region has been progressively reduced as insurgency has declined, though it remains in force in parts of some states.
Link every police station in the country on a common application so that crime and criminal records are digitised, searchable across states, and citizen services such as complaint tracking and antecedent verification are available online.
Key: A Ministry of Home Affairs project begun in 2009 with an approved outlay of about Rs 2,000 crore, implemented by the National Crime Records Bureau, covering more than 14,000 police stations.
Extend the police database outward to the rest of the criminal justice chain so that a case can be tracked across institutions.
Key: Created in 2017 as an expansion of CCTNS, linking police data with courts, prisons, prosecution, forensics and fingerprint systems.
Give every state the ability to upload and search fingerprints against a single national database rather than maintaining isolated state collections.
Key: Maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau and linked into CCTNS, so a fingerprint lifted at a scene in one state can be matched against records generated in another.
Bridge the information gap between agencies by giving authorised users access to multiple government and private databases in one query.
Key: Conceived after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and developed over more than a decade; it draws on datasets such as tax and bank records, card transactions, immigration and visa records, and rail and air travel itineraries.
Let every state police force and central agency route international police assistance requests through INTERPOL directly and in real time, instead of through slow paper channels.
Key: Developed by the CBI and launched on 7 January 2025 in New Delhi; it streamlines Red Notices and other INTERPOL notices and gives access to INTERPOL databases across its 195 member countries.
Combine security measures with development interventions and the assurance of rights and entitlements of local communities in LWE-affected districts.
Key: Approved in 2015; alongside the SAMADHAN doctrine adopted in 2017, it framed the counter-LWE effort. The number of LWE-affected districts fell from 126 in 2014, and in April 2026 the Ministry of Home Affairs informed states that no district now carries the LWE-affected classification, with 31 districts placed in a 'Legacy and Thrust' category for continued support.
SAMADHAN, adopted by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2017, is an acronym-based doctrine that packages the counter-LWE effort into named elements: Smart leadership, Aggressive strategy, Motivation and training, Actionable intelligence, Dashboard-based key result areas and key performance indicators, Harnessing technology, Action plan for each theatre, and No access to financing. Its significance for the exam is less the acronym than what it represents - a shift from treating extremism purely as a law-and-order problem for state police to treating it as a coordinated campaign with intelligence, development, financing and technology strands running together, measured against dashboards. The National Policy and Action Plan approved in 2015 supplied the developmental half of that approach, pairing security operations with road connectivity, mobile towers, banking access and delivery of rights and entitlements in affected districts - the reasoning being that extremism persists where the state is absent rather than merely where it is opposed.
Simple Analogy: It is the difference between posting more guards at a leaking dam and mapping every crack, every water source and every repair crew on one board with deadlines against each.
The Multi-Agency Centre traces to the intelligence-coordination overhaul that followed the Kargil Review Committee's report and the Group of Ministers on national security - the same reform cycle that created Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff.
Public order and police are State List subjects, which is why almost every instruction in this address is directed at DGPs and state governments rather than executed centrally - and why 'Centre-State coordination' is the recurring theme.
India's narcotics challenge is shaped by its position between the Golden Crescent (Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan) to the north-west and the Golden Triangle (Myanmar, Laos, Thailand) to the east, which is why drug enforcement and border management are treated together.
The claim about fugitives returned from abroad connects to India's extradition treaty network, the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, and now to trial in absentia under the BNSS, which removes the ability of an absconder to stall proceedings indefinitely.
GS Paper 3 > Security > Various Security Forces and Agencies and Their Mandate; Challenges to Internal Security
General Awareness > Static GK on Security Agencies and Acts
General Awareness > Internal Security
Internal security agencies, the new criminal laws and anti-LWE policy are staple UPSC GS-3 topics and recur in every general-awareness paper.
The Intelligence Bureau-run platform for sharing terrorism-related intelligence between central and state agencies, with State Multi-Agency Centres as counterparts.
A trial conducted in the absence of the accused, permitted under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita so that a proclaimed absconder cannot indefinitely stall proceedings.
National Automated Fingerprint Identification System - the National Crime Records Bureau's single national fingerprint database, searchable by all states.
The CBI-developed portal, launched in January 2025, giving Indian agencies real-time access to INTERPOL channels including Red Notices.
The Ministry of Home Affairs' 2017 counter-Left Wing Extremism doctrine combining leadership, strategy, training, actionable intelligence, dashboard-based monitoring, technology, theatre-specific action plans and disruption of financing.