Punjab police to be more tech savvy; appointed IT expert as CTO
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
In an endeavour to make the force more technology-enabled and data-driven, the Punjab Police has appointed Dhruv Singhal as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO), with the mandate of leveraging technology in combating all kinds of crime, including terrorist and cybercrime. The appointment of Dhruv Singhal as CTO has been made, with the concurrence of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, in the Technical Services Wing of Punjab Police.
Notably, Dhruv Singhal has vast experience and expertise of 31 years in the IT industry and his last assignment was as Head of Technology at Amazon Internet Services Pvt. Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of Amazon Web Services. Singhal is a graduate from IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta, and his areas of specialization include Application Integration, Databases, and Big Data, among others.
Recognizing that technology can be a huge force multiplier, DGP Dinkar Gupta said that he had already initiated the design and implementation of a large number of ambitious technology and IT based projects in the Punjab Police. Given the hostile neighbourhood of this border state, with increasing deployment of drones to smuggle drugs and weapons into Punjab, it had become imperative to further scale up the force’s technology thrust, he added.
“I have worked in UK, Ireland and US, and have been with MNCs for over 25 years. I would now like to use my experience and knowledge of Information technology to contribute back to the society. I will be working with Punjab Police in the adoption of new technologies like Big Data and Business Intelligence to combat crime in a more effective manner”, said Dhruv Singhal.
The DGP said that the CTO would advise, assist and support the Head of the Technical Services Wing in the development of an overall vision, strategy and technology roadmap for the extensive use of Technology, including IT, in the police Department. Working in close collaboration with the ADGP Technical Services of the Punjab Police, he will also guide the implementation of this roadmap, to help boost efficiency and effectiveness in the functioning of the department and enable more seamless citizen-centric services.
Singhal will coordinate and liaise with NATGRID Delhi for the design and implementation of STATEGRID in Punjab, which is a network of databases about Arms, Arms License holders, Arms Dealers, Passports, vehicles, Driving License holders, suspects etc., on the lines of NATGRID and he would also help design and implement a Real Time Crime Centre for the state police, which is a centralized technology centre with a purpose to give field officers instant information to help identify patterns and stop emerging crime, said the DGP.
The DGP further said that apart from adding value to the design and development of the above-mentioned projects and supporting their implementation, Dhruv Singhal would be expected to scan the emerging technologies and platforms, and provide direction on which new technologies should be integrated and introduced in different facets of the Punjab Police, including Intelligence, Investigation, Administration, field policing etc.. Some of the projects, he would be involved with are the design, development and implementation of a Big data solution to enable proper information storage, collation, analysis, sharing and retrieval of data, development of Online Intelligence Sharing Platform, Village Information System & database, GIS Mapping, crime mapping etc. said the DGP
Gupta said that the CTO has also been mandated to develop strategy for technology platforms and partnerships, besides establishing internal communication systems, including email and messaging. He will lay down overall technology standards and propose technology performance metrics to track and analyze the existing technology platforms.
May,28,2020
