U.S. to help India deal with new security challenges

The U.S. has agreed to share its expertise with India in countering new security challenges mainly terrorism. 

The U.S. government has agreed to provide Indian officers of various agencies access to its specialized agencies under the Department of Homeland Security particularly the Georgia head-quartered Federal Law Enforcement Training Centres (FLETC) to help them deal with the changing face of international terrorism.

According to this programme, the Indian officials and security officers would go through various courses like Cyber Security, Megacity Policing and Forensic.

India seeks to build an army of experts who can handle new technologies and mechanism to deal with various kinds of terrorism and anti-national activities with the passage of time.

Focus of US training programmes:

The U.S. programmes will deal with four aspects of terrorism:

1. Global supply chain, transportation, port, border and maritime security
2. Megacity policing and sharing of information among federal, State and local partners
3. Illicit finance, smuggling of cash, financial fraud and counterfeiting
4. Cyber security and critical infrastructure protection.

What is “Megacity Policing”?

The U.S. has also offered India to help develop the concept of Megacity Policing with the growing population in cities and increasing threat perception and which is a step it has been promoting since the 9/11 attacks. An advance course in surveillance, control room design and its operation by various security agencies and police authorities are key elements of this concept.

Who will participate in the US-security training programmes?

The officials would be among the agencies and government departments including the National Security Council Secretariat, the National Investigation Agency, the Intelligence Bureau, the National Technical Research Organisation, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the paramilitary and State police forces, the Customs, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the Enforcement Directorate, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology, the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.