Could information technology have helped in preventing and countering acts of terrorism like the devastating explosions in suburban trains in Mumbai last week, which killed nearly 200 innocent people? A robust yes, according to the IT industry.

"In a city or a country, there are many security agencies such as the police, the railway police, the airport police, the Navy, the Army, etc., who may have their own intelligence gathering systems. In addition, there is a huge amount of personal information that is held by banks, telephone companies, credit card companies, among others. People also leave a trail of information when they transact," said Mr Ravindra Kadam, head of solutions and strategy at the Mastek Group, a software solutions company.

"The problem is these systems are not integrated, so it becomes difficult for law enforcers to spot the bigger picture or pattern. The agencies do share information, but since the exchange of information is manual and does not happen in real time, it is often too late before critical information reaches the right hands," he says.

"Countries around the world use a wide range of technologies to both pre-empt terrorist strikes as well as investigate them. And India should do likewise," says Mr Kadam. So what would an ideal anti-terrorism technology system look like? "In an intelligence work, information is the key. Getting the information at the right time and sending it out to the right people can go a long way in stopping terror in its tracks. An ideal system would typically have three layers — information gathering, analytics and access and alerts," he says.

According to Mr Kadam, what is needed is an integrated approach to information gathering. Information from all the agencies should come into a centralised repository where it can be collated, analysed and disseminated in real time, in a secure environment. Another area to consider is the use of sophisticated and integrated public surveillance systems such as CCTV cameras and number plate tracking systems. Instead of just using them in sensitive areas such as airports, these systems can be installed at key entry and exit points, junctions and sensitive routes.

"Data by itself is meaningless unless you can glean intelligence from it. That’s where analytics can help. Using the data from the information gathering systems, law enforcement agencies can build threat and risk models, spot patterns and become proactive in their anti-terrorism activities," he says.The impediment to get such a system up and running is that it is not easy to build. "It needs coordination between many agencies and largescale system integration. The IT system, therefore, must be a part of a larger anti-terrorism plan," he says.

Home, auto and personal loans may cost more as banks and housing financial institutions said they would hike interest rates following a quarter per cent increase by the Reserve Bank in short term rates on Tuesday.

Lenders like National Housing Bank, LIC Housing Finance, PNB, Oriental Bank of Commerce, YES Bank and J&K Bank indicated that they would hike loan rates to protect their interest margin — the difference between cost of funds and lending rates.

Hiking the repo and reverse repo rates by 0.25 per cent, the RBI said credit growth is above projection and needs caution as quality of credit is a matter of concern. The rate hike by the RBI for the second time in the last two months has hurt many banks, as borrowing from the central bank was a cheaper means to meet short term fund requirements. According to industry estimates, home loan disbursement was pegged to grow by 18 per cent to Rs 1,00,000 crore and car loan by 20 per cent to Rs 40,000 crore this fiscal.

With loan rates going up by about one per cent in the last one year and another hike around the corner, the volume of lending is likely to be affected. "But, we have little choice other than hiking the home loan rates," LIC HF CEO S.K. Mitter said.

NHB, the home loan refinancing arm of the RBI, has said that it may increase refinance rates by 25-50 basis points — a hike that housing finance companies will pass on to their borrowers. "I cannot have a shrinking margin... We will review lending rates within a few days," OBC chairman K.N. Prithviraj said.

He said the 0.25 per cent hike in short term rates is going to increase the cost of funds for banks. "There is no way banks can adjust, as we have to protect the net interest margin," he said. Elsewhere, Ms Kalpana Morparia, ICICI Bank joint MD, said, "We have to watch how the hike of 0.25 per cent feeds into the cost of funds before we revise the interest rates." ICICI Bank is one of the big players in housing finance and has about 40 per cent of the auto loan market.