New Delhi: An AI-based passenger profiling system will be deployed across airports to identify high-risk passengers, drug couriers and emerging narcotics trafficking trends as part of the government’s drug-free India declaration, which is to be achieved over the next three years.
A drug screening mechanism will also be introduced in higher education institutions in a phased manner. This will cover the IITs, IIMs, NITs, central and deemed universities over the next three years, affecting more than 10 lakh students across 170 centrally-funded institutions.
These strategies are part of the first-of-its-kind and recently released national roadmap against drug trafficking – the ‘Vision Document on Narcotics Control 2026-2029’ – by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
PTI has accessed the 96-page document, which states it was prepared to provide a “clear strategic direction” to all the anti-narcotics stakeholders covering “all key dimensions” of the national fight against narcotics and for a ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat’.
It will translate the roadmap into an “actionable and outcome-oriented framework” for all stakeholders with the federal Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) as the nodal agency.
A total of 41 bodies – 39 ministries and departments of the Union government, various states and Union territories and their Anti-Narcotics Task Forces (ANTFs) – have been given timelines to accomplish various tasks so that the menace of drugs can be wiped out from the country by 2029.
The action plan also states that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will operationalise a “dedicated” extradition portal by July-end to bring back 100 drug-crime fugitives, who escaped from India, by March 2029.
“To strengthen airport interdiction capabilities, CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) will introduce AI and Machine Learning-based passenger profiling and trend analysis systems by March, 2027.
“This will facilitate the identification of high-risk passengers, drug couriers, and emerging trafficking patterns through analysis of travel behaviour and risk indicators,” the document said.
It stated this was important because drug syndicates were “increasingly” exploiting the air route to smuggle high-value but low-volume drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and synthetic drugs.
“Screening for drugs in higher education institutes will be introduced in a phased manner as part of a student wellness programme for early detection and counseling of students indulging in drug abuse.
“This initiative will cover IITs, IIMs, NITs, IISERs, SPAs, CFTI, Central and Deemed Universities in the next 3 years covering more than 10 lakh students across 170 centrally-funded higher educational institutions,” it said, adding that the screening SOP will be developed by the National Drug Dependency Treatment Centre of AIIMS (Delhi).
