While addressing home ministers of state on internal security issues, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that states should not let budget constraints get in the way of technological advances and that the rollout of 5G technology will improve surveillance efforts.
Modi warned that criminals have globalized and “we need to be ten steps ahead.” He added that interstate and international crimes have increased.
“That is why mutual cooperation between state agencies and between central and state agencies is becoming crucial,” Modi said.
He said technological advances are required to tackle cyber crimes and drones used for the smuggling of drugs and weapons.
“The law and order system can be improved with the help of smart technology,” he said.
The PM suggested that 5G technology can benefit law enforcement.
“With the help of 5G, the performance of facial recognition technology, automatic number plate recognition technology, drone and CCTV related technology, are going to improve manifolds,” Modi said.
“We need to make our law and order system smart… My request is that please don’t weigh technology with budget (constraints),” he added.
Modi said that there was a need for a common platform because different state agencies do not communicate.
“Many states are working on it in their own capabilities. But what has come to the fore is that our technologies do not talk to each other and that is why our energy gets wasted,” Modi said.
“We should have a pan India outlook, all our best practices should be interoperable and should have a common link,” he added.
