The Samajwadi Party called for a 'MahaParivartan' in its 14 page bare-bones manifesto released yesterday; it criticizes demonetisation and GST and calls for higher taxation of the rich. Tech related and other highlights from the manifesto: 1. Comeback of the NATGRID: The SP will reactivate the NATGRID, its "metadata intelligence grid", and equip it with "cutting edge tech and human resources" to tackle new challenges. According to the party, the grid will prevent attacks like Pulwama and keep our troops safe. Here's an introduction of the NATGRID, in a blog post by Centre for Internet and Society: The programme [NATGRID] intends to provide 11 security agencies real-time access to 21 citizen data sources to track terror activities across the country. The citizen data sources include bank account details, telephone records, passport data and vehicle registration details, the National Population Register (NPR), the Immigration, Visa, Foreigners Registration and Tracking System (IVFRT), among other types of data, all of which are already present within various government records across the country. Data mining and analytics are used to process the huge volumes of data generated from the 21 data sources so as to analyse events, match patterns and track suspects, with big data analytics being the primary tool to effectively utilise the project, which was founded to prevent another instance of the September, 2011 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The list of agencies that will have access to this data collection and analytics platform are the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Central Bureau…
