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The Civial Aviation Ministry has set up a committee for assessment of body scanners from the point of view of effectiveness, privacy and health, government said today. Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi told the Lok Sabha that the government has not installed non-intrusive body scanners so far and security agencies are carrying out an assessment of body scanners. "The government has not installed non-intrusive body scanner. However, assessment of the body scanners from security point of view is being carried out by security agencies," he said in a written reply.

"Nearly 10 years after the Kargil Review Committee was set up to revamp the defence establishment of the country, the government on Monday constituted a high-powered task force under former Cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra to overhaul the national security apparatus. According to sources, the 11-member committee will review various contentious issues like the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), hacking e-mails, BlackBerry and privacy issues involved in the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) project. "

the managing committee of the group housing society now finds itself in the middle of another controversy: for making it mandatory for skilled workers to furnish their fingerprints before entering the complex. The managing committee has been warned by the police to stop the illegal practice. "We received an e-mail from two members of the society about the practice being carried out, following which we issued the warning. As per law, only government investigative agencies have the right to take fingerprints. We will look into the possibility of taking legal action once we receive a complaint from those whose fingerprints have been taken.

Home Minister P Chidambaram's pet project of establishing a National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) to track terror and money laundering is likely to be vetted by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) next month. Informed sources said that a 900 page Detailed Project Report (DPR) that has been prepared to answer the queries raised by the sceptics within the government, including the Prime Minister, on the efficacy of the NATGRID has been sent to the CCS members to study. NATGRID envisages a powerful real-time 24X7 networking of 21 databases with enforcement agencies having analytical capability to cross-link different pieces of information and flag "tripwires" to indicate some unlawful or terrorist activity is in progress or likely to take place.

With allegations of misuse as well as fears of breach of privacy mounting, authorities are working to ban phone tapping in cases of tax evasion, except when the matter may have a bearing on national security. Even in cases concerning national security, only Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) or Enforcement Directorate (ED) will do phone-tapping after additional scrutiny of its request is done in consultation with both home and finance ministries. CBDT, another agency under the finance ministry which is empowered to tap phones, is being taken off the list.