With current volatile situation in the Middle East, North Africa and India’s immediate neighbourhood, the country’s initiative to protect national sovereignty and security must be an inclusive effort and hand-holding approach of public as well as private stakeholders, corporate and security experts said in New Delhi on Tuesday.
At the same time, business risk mitigation can be achieved by maintaining compliance with existing laws and regulations through public-private partnership, maintaining operational efficiency, ensuring reliable financial statements and anticipating risks to business assets, they said at a conference organised by industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industries of India (Assocham).
Delhi police commissioner B.K. Gupta said security agencies must leverage the latest technologies and collaborate with private sector to stay ahead and ward off any threats. The public and private parties are vital stakeholders in effective functioning of the system of national internal security, he said.
In his message, home secretary G.K. Pillai also said there is need for private sector to invest in research and development to ensure that technology is state-of-the-art.
D.R. Kaarthikeyan, chairman of Assocham’s national council on premises, installations and personnel security, said corporate security is a major issue currently facing companies in India and all over the world. Thus, it is crucial to assess the risk to protect the integrity of business operations.
“It is important to build systems and networks in such a way that the user is not constantly reminded of the security system around,” said Kaarthikeyan who was earlier director of the Central Bureau of Investigation and director general of the Central Reserve Police Force.
D.S. Rawat, secretary general of Assocham, said while the government is over-stretching its measures in securitising, the private industry is fully geared in supplementing the state’s initiatives. He, however, highlighted acute shortage of good quality of manpower.
Other experts said Indian internal security situation is marred by two major challenges – terrorism and Naxalism. This is concurrent with rising crime graph in urban areas. So there is need to create a national database, beef up intelligence gathering networks, ramp up staff at intelligence agencies, absorb meritorious and retired intelligence officials in the system, and tighten border maritime security.
The global private security services industry is estimated at $ 150 billion which is growing at 7.5 per cent a year and is likely to reach the level of $ 200 billion by next year. Half of this volume is in man-guarding services.
North America accounts for 42 per cent of the market share while western Europe and Asia Pacific have a slice of 26 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.
Indian private security service industry is currently pegged at $3 billion (about Rs 13,500 crore) and growing at 20 per cent per annum. With 17 per cent growth expected during 2011-15, the country is expected to be among top ten markets in the world by 2020.
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