Amit Shah Launches Abhigyan App: In one of its major tech police initiatives, NCRB has rolled out an app which can help any policemen across the country identify criminals by using his fingerprint. Union Home Minister Amit Shah released the app ‘Abhigyan’ at the 26th All India Fingerprint Conference in New Delhi on June 19, 2026. The app can match a suspect’s fingerprint against national criminal database within 35 seconds. According to the home ministry, the technology helps identifying any suspected person while standing in front of it.
Abhigyan is a portable mobile application, which is based on the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) or a repository of criminals’ fingerprint maintained by NCRB.
Using a portable fingerprint scanner and a mobile app, any policemen can take fingerprint from the suspects present in the field (either during patrols, on checking vehicles at check posts, on investigation at the crime scene etc.). Fingerprint data is securely transferred and matched with 1.29 crore criminals’ fingerprints present in the NAFIS database at the national level. The system comes out with identification and other details within 35 seconds. This would reduce manual checks of fingerprints that are considered time-taking and laborious process.
“Secured with two-step authentication, it allows real-time fingerprint identification within seconds, strengthening ground-level policing. Equipped with features such as fast identification, portability, and access to millions of records, ‘Abhigyan’ is a highly powerful tool,” the Union Minister said.
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With 1.29 crore fingerprints of criminals stored at the national level, the new application works with the help of its colossal database managed by the NCRB. According to the ministry, it has:
Other information on criminal and other databases which are soon to be added to these datasets in the future which would further aid the process through machine learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence.
Home Minister stated that the e-Prisons system contains data on 2 crore 29 lakh prisoners, while the e-Forensics database includes information on 34 lakh 48 thousands cases. Additionally Crime Multi Agency Centre (Cri-Mac) 43 lakh 16 thousand alert records.
This huge volume of criminal information is soon expected to be transformed into an intelligent tool using Big Data Analysis to produce actionable intelligence in criminal investigation.
The launch of Abhigyan comes as one among four major digital initiatives of the Home Ministry, the other being CrPI, e-Prosecution 2.0 and e-Forensics 2.0. “While digital tools will speed up policing, the collection of biometric data through any digital mode must also comply with existing laws like the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022,” experts noted.
Shri Shah remarked that if, even after matching fingerprints, telephone tower data, facial recognition, iris, and DNA, courts are still presented with 250 pieces of evidence, then technology serves no real purpose. At the same time, Shah remarked, the Government would convert the massive collection of criminal data across the spectrum of criminal justice system into actionable intelligence by applying AI and machine learning.
He mentioned that the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) network now covers 17,840 Police Stations and holds more than 37.68 crore records in its digital database.
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