Approach:

Introduction: Mention briefly the changing patterns of terrorism in India.

Body: Mention the new emerging challenges that India is currently witnessing and the steps taken by India to curb the menace of terrorism.

Conclusion: Give what more need to be done to tackle the changing pattern of terrorism. 

Answer:

Till now the Indian government has focused more on legal and institutional measures to deal with terrorism but these measures are turning out to be inadequate in recent times as with evolving technology terrorism is also evolving. So, although organized terrorist groups had taken a backseat, law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide are now facing the challenge of countering the terrorists' use of new and emerging technologies.

New Emerging Challenges Related to Terrorism:

1. Lone-Wolf Attacks - These are radicalized individuals or ‘freelancer’ terrorists with no formal affiliation or explicit linkage to well-established terrorist organizations and are now committing random acts of terrorist violence. The ghastly beheading incident at Udaipur in June 2022 represents the emergence of this amorphous nature of terrorism.
2. Expanding Web of Terrorism: Terrorist and terror suspects have expanded the use of The Onion Router (TOR)-enabled darknet for propaganda, and recruitment on encrypted chat forums and platforms beyond the gaze of the security agencies. Besides, other advancing and emerging technologies like autonomous systems, 3D printing and deep fake now potentially offer the terrorists prospects for weaponisation.
3. Terror Financing: Nowadays, cryptocurrencies are being exploited by terrorist organizations to finance their operations and currently, Cryptocurrencies are unregulated in India this is allowing the terrorist organizations to exploit this mode of financing.
4. Bio-terrorism: The postal department, back in 2001, received 17 suspicious letters that were believed to be infected with anthrax spores — bacteria that produce toxins which can cause skin, lungs and bowel diseases. As the 21st century is to be the epoch of biotechnology, it would be dangerously short-sighted to not think that these tools could be used by terrorists.
5. Cyber-Terrorism: There has been a significant increase in cyberattacks on critical infrastructure by nation-state bad actors. India has witnessed at least seven major cyberattacks and security incidents in critical infrastructure companies in the last two years.

 Current strategy of GOI:

1. Creation of NIA: In the wake of the 26/11 terrorist attack the National Investigation Agency was established to deal with terrorist crimes. At present NIA is functioning as the Central Counter Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency in India.
2. Neutralization of militants: After Surgical strikes in September 2016, infiltration has reduced by 45% in the period 2011-13 to 2014-17 in the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
3. Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act: The UAPA lays down the rules for designating an organization as an "unlawful association" if it is engaged in 'unlawful activity'. The 2019 Amendment gave the Home Ministry the power to designate individuals as terrorists.
4. Address Terror Financing: A Terror Funding and Fake Currency (TFFC) Cell has been constituted to conduct a focused investigation of terror funding and fake currency cases. Fake Indian Currency Notes Coordination Group has been formed to share intelligence/information among the security agencies of the states/centre.
5. National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID): NATGRID was conceived in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. It is an intelligence-sharing network that collates data from the standalone databases of the various agencies and ministries of the Indian government.
6. Creation of border Infrastructure: In the last three years 200 km of border areas have been fenced, 430 km of border roads have been built and 110 composite border outposts have been created.

Changes required in GOI strategy:

1. De-radicalisation: India’s de-radicalisation strategy should focus on defining radicalization, stemming the flow of propaganda from across the Indian borders, developing a uniform statutory framework, and upon rehabilitation, re-education and re-integration of those undergoing radicalisation.
2. No Money for Terror: For cryptocurrencies, intelligence and law enforcement agencies will need to step up their response to track and monitor blockchain transactions. This will need better forensics, better surveillance mechanisms, better training & transnational cooperation to evolve a coordinated approach.
3. Explore linkages between terrorism and criminal activities: There is an eminent need to pay attention to the related dimensions of narco-terror, cyber radicalisation, organized criminal syndicates, and money laundering.
4. Creation of a body to tackle bioterrorism: India needs a nodal agency for biological threats preparedness and response under the National Disaster Management Authority. This agency would bring together experts from various ministries, representatives from the private sector, and professionals from the academic and scientific communities.
5. Developing Cyber-Defence Mechanism: A holistic approach for dealing with cyber terrorism is necessary i.e., India needs to develop a national cyber-security strategy, invest in new cyber-security technologies, create a centralized cyber-security unit and develop a robust cyber-security research and development program etc.

To address terrorism in its evolving nature nations across the world needs to come together to define terrorism in order to design more effective counterterrorism measures.