Amit Shah inaugurates India’s first multi agency centre for real-time intelligence sharing

Union Home Minister Amit Shah being felicitated during the inauguration of the new Multi Agency Centre (MAC) in New Delhi
| Photo Credit:
PIB

A new Multi Agency Centre (MAC) – country’s foremost intelligence fusion centre – was inaugurated on Friday by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The centre has been technologically upgraded to add more nodes for sourcing information from even the country’s remote areas in island territories, insurgency-affected areas and high-altitude terrain.

Housed with the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the new MAC has connected all the intelligence, security, law enforcement and investigative agencies at a time when the threat to India post military offensive with Pakistan has gone up.

The new facility is expected to enhance real-time intelligence sharing, quicken response mechanisms, and improve inter-agency synergy in addressing internal and external threats, said Ministry of Home Affairs sources.

Born during Kargil War

Over ₹500 crore was invested to upgrade MAC, which came into existence in 2001 post the Kargil War, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the Ministry said in a statement.

It incorporates futuristic capabilities such as embedded artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to harness the potential of the vast database with MAC and Geographic Information System (GIS) services, noted Ministry officials.

The MAC had established connectivity between the national capital, 25 Central member agencies and all the State capitals. In the State capitals, the network links the State MAC, State Police Special Branch, and offices of all Central and other counter-terror agencies.

Now, the network has been extended to district headquarters, selected in consultation with State police chiefs.

“The new MAC network spanning the length and breadth of the country, has weaved in country’s island territories, insurgency-affected areas and mountainous high-altitude terrain, ensuring last-mile connectivity down to the level of district SPs in the remotest areas with a fast and standalone secure network, the MHA readout said.

MAC against terrorism

After inaugurating the platform in North Block, Shah stated that Operation Sindoor “is a unique symbol of firm political will of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accurate information of intelligence agencies and the infallible strike capability of our three armed forces.”

He also called for the need to integrate other significant databases housed with different Central agencies in different silos, on this platform for leveraging the advanced data analytics made available with new MAC.

Shah said the new network is expected to elevate the quality of data analytics, enabling accurate trend analysis, hotspot mapping and timeline analysis to give predictive and operational outcomes.

“The new MAC will synergise the efforts of all agencies and provide a seamless and integrated platform to deal with the complex and interconnected current national security challenges,” the Home Minister observed.

According to him, the new network will strengthen the country’s efforts to deal with serious threats like terrorism, extremism, organized crime and cyber attacks.

Published on May 16, 2025