You are being watched, anytime, anywhere

Security business post-terror attack on the twin towers of America got a whole new meaning, record growth of 30-40 per cent year-on-year.

You are being watched, anytime, anywhere! This 24x7 vigil is as real as the images etched in our minds of the two planes crashing into New York’s World Trade Centre exactly 10 years ago. In the same period, India has witnessed at least 30 terror attacks across various parts of the country, the latest one being at the Delhi High Court a few days ago. No wonder then that across airports, metro stations, railway platforms, shopping malls, hotels, movie theatres, offices, and even prestigious walkways like Delhi’s Rajpath, video cameras and surveillance kits are chasing one and all to the last inch possible. Snooping, intrusion, complete lack of privacy, call it what you may, but the business of security, that got a new meaning altogether post 9/11, is here to stay.

Industry estimates suggest that the corporate world in India has been scaling up its security budgets in the past few years, and is expected to take it higher by as much as 35 to 40 per cent in the next two years or so. Although no consolidated figure is available on how much the government and the businesses are spending to strengthen the security needs, there are some clear indicators.

Consider this. Annual hotel infrastructure security is pegged at $1.2 billion in the country; the spend on transport sector (air and railways) security is roughly around $1 billion in a year; and airport security is tipped to cost over $3.2 billion by 2016, industry reports have shown.

Significantly, research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan estimated a 10-times growth in the Indian biometrics market by 2015. The science of biometrics refers to uniquely recognising humans based upon one or more physical or behavioral attributes.

Vikas Chadha, regional director – South Asia, Honeywell Security Group, told Business Standard that on the government side, there have been efforts to modernise police and paramilitary organisations and revamp maritime security architecture. As for the corporate world, sectors like IT/IT-enabled Services, commercial construction, retail, infrastructure, hospitality, and industrial segments have shown robust growth in the recent years and this has stepped up their electronic security needs, according to Chadha.

Home Minister P Chidambaram, while admitting that India has one of the lowest police-population ratios in the world, said: “Thanks to our prodding states, we have recruited 90,359 police personnel in 2010.” In addition, the Central Armed Police Forces recruited, in two financial years, 93,757 new personnel. In 2011-12, CAPFs will recruit another 92,168 people.

As for hotels, the major players have not just limited the entry and the exit points to reduce the unnecessary thoroughfare and invested heavily on state-of-the-art equipment for surveillance, they are learnt to be actively seeking 'intelligence inputs' from local authorities to ward off terror attacks. Luxury hotels are increasingly hiring top retired army officers as head of security, spending large sums of money. Hotels are also spending big time on R&D to have a secure complex. After much research, some new hotels have increased the distance between the entry gate and lobby, to provide enough reaction time in case of a forceful entry.

The oil and energy sector, which too is top of the list vis-à-vis security spend, is maintaining its initiatives to keep the installations safe. All vital installations of ONGC are being primarily guarded by CISF/State Armed Police. Home Guards, departmental security and contractual security guards are also deployed in lesser sensitive installations. Security expenditure includes spend on infrastructure, arms and ammunition, vehicles, communication equipment and security gadgets.

Similarly, Indian Oil, the downstream major of the country, has well-defined security manual and Oil Sector Infrastructure Protection Plan, covering pre-incident, on-incident and post-incident protection. Bomb threat contingency plan, and mocks drills as part of security protection are also among the risk reduction measures here.

In associates with Ajay Modi, Aditi Phadnis & Ruchika Chitravanshi