2017 witnessed various ups and downs across business communities in India, including Private Security Industry, in pursuance of multiple reforming policy and regulatory initiatives taken by the Government of India. While calls for Make in India, Digital India and Skill India, Safe City and Smart Cities, and other critical infrastructure development projects have opened far-reaching opportunities for the industry to flourish, demonetization and implementation of GST have been ordered to keep a hold on the unaccounted transactions, corruption, and other malpractices during business deals. The private security industry is one of the fastest growing business of the country which has been growing at the rate of more that 20% in recent past, much higher than the global growth rate, and various reports suggest that it would continue to grow at the similar rate. When the year is now heading to close, SecurityLink India spoke to some eminent players of the Indian Security Industry to find the actual experiences they have been through. Here are some excerpts: Sanjeev Sehgal, Founder & Managing Director, SPARSH SecurityLink India: About six months on, what is your take on GST and the implementation thereof for you and the security industry at large? Sanjeev Sehgal: Today, there are less complexities when we sell products from one state to the other; now we don’t have to pay multiple taxes like CST, Entry Tax, Octroi etc. This would certainly be helpful in expanding market nationally. Things have become less complicated now. However, the biggest challenge which GST has offered is the payment of GST at the time of removal of stocks from the factory, even in the case of branch transfers. It is adding pressure on working capital requirements, which is always a major issue for manufacturers. GST is turning India into one common market, leading to greater ease of doing business and big savings in logistics costs. SecurityLink India: How has the ‘Make in India’ call impacted you and the entire security industry so far? Sanjeev Sehgal: The ‘Make in India’ initiative gives distributors in security systems a platform to reach out to people through an organized method. Since its launch, the Make in India initiative has started showing results. Increased production outputs and growing FDI into India are seen as a result of the initiative. IP video surveillance and CCTV are quickly becoming the norm in public spaces. With the security industry slated to grow to a INR 80,000 crore industry by the year 2020, the ‘Make in India’ initiative has already given this industry a major boost towards that direction. SecurityLink India: Kindly name and give a brief about the products and solutions that you floated during 2017. Sanjeev Sehgal: The security market is experiencing an upward trend in upcoming technologies. We at Sparsh have successfully introduced contemporary trends in the surveillance market with Cloud surveillance. We have recently introduced an Indian cloud computing platform, developed indigenously in India. Remote monitoring, Wi-Fi integrated solutions and customized solutions for specific verticals are some of the upcoming technologies in the security solutions market developed by Sparsh. These aid in solutions such as ANPR, critical infrastructure, border security etc. SecurityLink India: Which are the major projects you accomplished this year? Sanjeev Sehgal: This year we have bagged some prestigious projects such as Delhi schools, FCI, CISF etc. SecurityLink India: What are your plans for the new year? Sanjeev Sehgal: In the forthcoming years, we would like to take the idea of ‘Made in India’ and ‘Make in India’ to a global platform as a leading CCTV manufacturer of India. Sparsh as a brand will target Government, Safe City, Smart City and SMB market and which is the large and sizable business opportunity for us. In the Union Budget, there were many provisions for ‘Make in India.’ We are benefited by such initiatives as an indigenous Indian manufacturing company and brand. Smart Home solution will be another area we would be targeting for growth. In the near future we have plans to launch many new products in this space. Robbin Shen, Director, India & SAARC, Dahua Technology SecurityLink India: How would you rate this year for you in terms of business opportunities and procurements in India? Robbin Shen: 2017 has been a successful year for Dahua as our security products and solutions have been well received and accepted in the market for their intrinsic strengths such as high quality, durability, reliability, and the capacity to function in all weather conditions. Thus we can claim it has been an excellent year for us. SecurityLink India: India has jumped 30 places to 100 in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Index. What does your wide-ranging experience in security industry suggest? Robbin Shen: The current Government of India has taken a number of industry-friendly measures such as Smart Cities, Safe Cities, Digital India, and recently the implementation of GST. They have certainly made favorable impact on the prospect and ease of doing business environment in the country, albeit, it has yet to go a long way at the regional and local levels. India has enormous potential and it will become a major market for us. SecurityLink India: About six months on, what is your take on GST and the implementation thereof for you and the security industry at large? Robbin Shen: We welcome the GST initiative taken by the Indian Government. It has reduced the prices of many security items from 28 percent to 18 per cent. There are suggestions to reduce the rate further which, if implemented, will be a boon to all the stakeholders from manufacturers to customers. As prices decline affordability increases, and that makes more people to install security devices to safeguard their lives and properties. SecurityLink India: Kindly name and give a brief about the products and solutions that you floated during 2017. Robbin Shen: We have launched a number of security products, solutions and latest technologies – mainly Extended Power over Ethernet Devices or ePoE including network cameras, switches and network recorders….
