Month: August 2020

Just two months after the accomplishment of the private security industry (PSI) whereby private security services (PSS) were declared an ‘essential service’ during COVID-19 regime, the industry has set forth for a next pursuit. Kunwar Vikram Singh, Chairman, Central Association of Private Security Industry (CAPSI), has recently written a letter to Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India whereby he sought that the private security services in India should be declared a ‘tax-free service.’ He said that it is the basic and fundamental duty of the Government to ensure every citizen of the country safety, security and the sense of being secured; and to make a citizen feel so it must provide adequate internal security infrastructure.     The Chairman argued that security and safety are of paramount significance. The Government creates police and paramilitary forces to respond to the security and safety situations of the citizen; however, it does not send invoices to people for availing such services. Owing to the fact that there is a very low police-public ratio in India, there are huge gray areas where citizens are forced to protect themselves and their assets by retaining the paid services of private security agencies. This need of paid security services is experienced as they don’t feel secure due to various prevailing factors. That sense of insecurity created a fear psychosis among the citizens that forces them to buy private security at a cost. These circumstances bring us to a conclusion that the government internal security infrastructure is not adequate enough to grant ‘right to security’ to every citizen. This gap needs to be addressed post haste. Such an inadequacy of government services must be compensated by the State by paying for the additional security services needed by its citizens. Kunwar Vikram Singh said that this huge expense may not be possible for an already burdened government, but it should not be levying a Service Tax to those who should have otherwise been protected by the government itself. Private security agencies, which are, to a large extent, filling the void in the internal security environment due to the lack of government forces are actually saving the government exchequer huge money which would otherwise have been used in raising more police and paramilitary forces. People pay for the security services and take away financial burden off the government for raising more battalions of Police and Paramilitary forces. Considering this huge savings, the Government must not charge Services Tax for the services which they are duty bound to provide. Kunwar Vikram Singh sought that in order to create goodwill among its citizens post Covid, the private security services should be declared ‘tax free’ so that the consumers of the private security services will be hugely benefitted and such services will become more affordable. Majority of these services are now being availed by lakhs of resident welfare associations (RWAs) and small, medium enterprises (SMEs). He concluded that a delegation of CAPSI shall soon meet the Prime Minister to discuss the merits of this approach.  

The Gujarat Forensic Sciences University, popularly known as GFSU, as claimed, is the world’s first and only university dedicated to Forensic Sciences and allied subjects. Nestled in the lush green environs of an equally serene capital city of Gandhinagar, the university quietly continues to gallop in academic excellence. Envisioned by the P.M. and the then C.M. of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, to be an institution of higher learning of international standard for producing experts in different fields of Forensic Science, this unique university has not looked back since its inception on 10th February, 2009. Well before ‘Skill India’ became a buzz word, its founder Director General and the country’s senior-most Forensic Scientist, Dr. J.M. Vyas had started employing all his experience of five long decades to launch post graduate courses in all possible branches of Forensic Science. Today, in just about a decade, GFSU boasts 50 specialised P.G. programmes, ranging from legacy branches like Fingerprint Science, Document Examination, Food Analysis and Ballistics, to the more advanced forensic fields like DNA analysis, Toxicology, Odontology and Forensic Psychology, further on to the latest streams such as different areas of Cyber Forensics, Forensic Nanotechnology, Forensic Structural Engineering and Environmental Science, to name a few.   Reminiscing about initial days, Dr. Vyas said that as there was no forensic science university in the world, we had no template to fall back upon and had to innovate and plan each and every training methodology and facility in-house. Despite this, Dr. Vyas simultaneously embarked on three major verticals – Institute of Forensic Science, Institute of Research & Development, and Institute of Behavioural Science to cover all the branches as also to provide a special impetus to the R&D. Besides this, to keep pace with the advancements in academics and technology, Dr. Vyas planned academic collaboration across the world in a big way which stands today with more than hundred multi-disciplined institutions. He also began offering expert consultancy in setting up or upgrading various laboratories in the country as well as abroad. Once the University settled down, Dr. Vyas came out with a new concept of Preventive Forensics! He explained that while Forensic Science is used the world over for investigating a crime, it should also be utilized in preventing a crime. This gave rise to courses in Homeland Security, Cyber Security, Hospital management and Forensic Accounting. These Management courses, coupled with enormous training programmes being run by GFSU for participants from different departments of the Government as well as number of foreign countries, led Dr. Vyas to plan the next vertical, Institute of Management & Training. Dr. S.O. Junare, Director of this institute informed that GFSU conducts a number of special training programmes, including for 68 friendly foreign countries. As a result, Dr. Junare proudly stated that in just ten years, GFSU has trained about 10,000 officers including 2200 foreign officers from varied departments such as Police, Armed Forces, Bureaucrats from Central Ministries, Judiciary, Banking, Vigilance, Customs, Immigration etc. One of the unique and successful courses at GFSU is its 2-year full time MBA Programme in Homeland Security. It is a very comprehensive course where the students are trained in every facet of internal security to function at higher appointments at global, national as well as organisational level. Veteran Air Commodore K.R. Thaakar, now a Senior Faculty Member for Homeland Security, informed that the course has recently been upgraded to equip the participants with requisite skills to respond to major security threats and disasters by way of preparing strategy, refining plans, implementing in a fool-proof way, exploiting technology, carrying out investigations, undertaking audits etc. In particular, the course is designed to gain expertise in the fields of International Security Perspective, Internal Security Threats, Border Security Threats, CBRN Warfare, Cyber Security, Disaster Preparedness & Response, Financial Frauds, Intelligence Sharing, Threat Assessment, Vulnerability Analysis, Critical Infrastructure Protection, Civil & Criminal Laws and Application of Forensic Science, to name a few. This, coupled with the extensive coverage of Management Fundamentals & Techniques, Financial Accounting and Psychology, prepare the students with necessary managerial skills to lead their security departments. Air Commodore Thaakar said that besides equipping with wide ranging knowledge, the students are also provided with practical exposure through a week-long visit to Adani Port & SEZ at Mundra (Gujarat) and a recently introduced 2-week training at the prestigious North-Eastern Police Academy (NEPA) at Shillong. The entire 4th semester is dedicated to internship at one of the major institutions/ industry for hands-on experience in various facets of security, and preparing a dissertation which provides valuable and analytical insight to the students. In the past, besides young students, the course has also been attended by number of armed forces officers and police officers from India as well as abroad, and they found it very useful. Dr. S.O. Junare, who is the senior-most Director, unhesitatingly claimed that no one passes out disappointedly from GFSU as it has achieved enviable standard of academic excellence, established impressive infrastructure and has expert faculty.   Dr. J.M. Vyas, despite serving for 47 years as a Forensic Scientist, heading Gujarat’s Forensic Science Directorate for past 27 years and presiding as the Director General, akin to the Vice Chancellor, of GFSU for 11 years, is not contented as yet. Continuing its long strides, GFSU has launched nine new P.G. programmes in the upcoming academic session of 2020-21. This includes courses in novel fields like Multimedia Forensics, Malware Analysis & Reverse Engineering, Forensics and Anti-Corruption, and Cyber-Psychology. As the new courses start, the entire process of inviting expert faculty to join the family, creating infrastructure, entering into academic collaboration, starting research activity and most importantly, ensuring that the highest academic standard is maintained, is all put into motion, each and every time. Dr. Vyas, with his outstanding vision, dynamism and expertise, continues to raise the bar at the GFSU.  

As businesses in many countries around the world reopen and resume operations, people are getting back to work and back to their daily routines. And with today’s technologies being applied in practical ways that help in the real world, keeping people safe, healthy, and protected is becoming easier than ever. Using a non-contact temperature-screening solution is one current measure being used to quickly spot individuals with elevated skin temperature (EST). This detection method is designed to help initial screening of EST, and combines with the use of medical equipment to further verify symptoms. This method also reduces manual testing time and safety risks to those involved in the detection process. Temperature screening cameras have now been widely adopted by organizations and business across the globe. Some of the most typical use-cases are found in airports, hospitals, offices, and manufacturing and logistics facilities, which have seen tremendous benefits using thermal technology. Prama Hikvision helped customers build the first line of defence Prama Hikvision’s temperature screening solution, made up of various products and a wide range of applications, is designed for the detection of skin-surface temperatures to achieve rapid and safe initial screening in public areas. Its flexibility means it can be used in a multitude of scenarios.   These thermographic cameras are used by customers from multiple industries around the world such as at ports of entry and high-traffic locations, including Charles De Gaulle airport in France, Brasilia Airport in Brazil, Ikazia Hospital in the Netherlands, Cambridge hospital in Canada, Chaudhary Group Industrial Park in Nepal, Toyota Industrial Park in Canada, Vancouver liquor store in Canada, and many more. Temperature screening will remain important for reopening and resuming businesses of all types. In some countries health authorities and regulators are taking a very cautious approach to deployment of temperature screening cameras, and it is advisable referring to the current local guidance before any deployment of this solution. In case of the U.S., the latest specific guidelines released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), temperature checks are encouraged at entrances for employees returning to work. It’s all part of the increasingly common measures employers are now putting in place to guard against a second wave of the pandemic. More than that, Prama Hikvision’s temperature screening cameras integrate into security and access control systems in convenient ways that really work, with functionalities that include social distancing measures, crowd and traffic controls, mask detection, access control and employee attendance tracking, temperature screening, and more.  

A thought leader and an action catalyzer rolled into one – Anil Puri is a rare combination of a visionary, and one who has mastered the art of strategic and tactical thinking to the core. He has been using this combination to seed new ideas and to lead them to their implementation on-ground. This has been a consistent feature of his career. He has been keenly watching the wide spread disruption caused by COVID 19 across the board in all contours of the industry. The spontaneous and immediate impact was on the human resource (HR) & employees. Here he attempts to decode the same and peep into transformation thereof. Further, he goes an extra mile to suggest steps which HR leaders can take to navigate through the crisis. The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on health, economies and markets is an unfolding story that is unprecedented, complex and fluid in its ever-changing dimensions. One of the biggest visible impacts of the virus has been on the organizations, people and the nature of workplaces. As the coronavirus spread invisibly across the globe, nation after nation declared lockdowns and organizations scrambled to comply with lockdown restrictions while striving to keep the operations going. The current humanitarian and economic crisis forced people and corporates to consciously step up and reset priorities for steering growth and stability while weathering the storm. Work-from-Home (WFH) became the immediate solution to business continuity. As the guidelines from MHA kept pouring in, the task of HR became more compelling & complex. However, post initial shock effect, gradually the HR functions stepped up to transform and re-set its priorities. How do leaders manage radical changes by redefining guidelines pertaining to people, process, technology and governance? CHALLENGES The spiralling effect of lockdown forced organizations to downsize the businesses, go in for cost cutting, minimise office expenditure, enforce salary cuts, manpower pruning, search for other streams of revenue, uninterrupted employee and customer engagement etc. These measures, coupled with restrictions imposed by MHA and State Govts gave birth to numerous challenges for the HR on ground in form of agility, creativity and flexibility in functions: Leadership deficit: Usually communication had been led by the Top Team but need of the hour urged downstream delegation. Voice of the regional leaders across the company assumed greater importance. Few days of policy paralysis at the top exposed vulnerability and leadership deficit. Crisis response: Crisis response fell into three categories – Communication, Remote Working and Reporting. Communication assumed vital dimension – coordinating responses across teams, business and geographies. Transforming lateral functioning into cross functioning between managers and teams became top priority. Command and control business continuity model needed to be aligned and to be in sync with geographies. Response to rapidly evolving situations: Need to re-organize company goals and their alignment among executives and managers. Safety protocols & mental health: Despite flow of information on social media, communication on safety protocols, hygiene practices, emergency numbers, list of hospitals, guidelines for quarantining and isolating had to be disseminated through company gateways. Need for mental health, resilience, family support, and dealing with uncertainty assumed bigger dimensions. Agility of sales team: Sales teams are still engaged in classical way of marketing despite client being in crisis mode, not quick to understand shifting concerns of the client. It is difficult to manage the mind-set of the marketing team. Mode of thinking of sales people needed a paradigm shift since not engaged with digital projects and not digging into client’s pain points. Poor communications with clients to exploit the new pipeline opportunities was also a gross deficit. Human centric approach to lay-offs: There’s really no avoiding the fact that layoffs are tough, both for the individuals who suddenly find themselves without a job and the organization they leave behind. Organizations tended to experience impaired reputation, reduced longterm performance and lower employee engagement on this context. In this pandemic-induced economic crisis, organizations faced the negative consequences of layoffs as they had to make difficult decisions to preserve the overall health of their businesses. Impact on HR practices & Re-setting the Priorities Work from home (WFH): Re-defining the policies to ensure that employees could work seamlessly and securely. WFH may impact decision-making structures because of the constraints of video meeting platforms. Smaller teams may be able to collaborate better and take decisions faster. Work places: As organizations get more comfortable with employees working remotely, the requirement for office space and fixed workstations may reduce drastically. However, policies had to be redefined for workplaces for functioning with minimal staff with required safety protocols. Infrastructure: Supporting the employees with infrastructure – like provisioning of laptops, data cards to ensure business continuity to facilitate WFH. The procurement of masks, hand washes, and sanitizers was critical even though supplies fell low in the market. Human connect: Amid a rapidly unfolding health crisis, employee safety became prime concern. Safety and social distancing compliance, and regular disinfection/ sanitization of premises have become an essential component of keeping employees safe. Motivation: Keeping employees engaged, motivated, safe and productive is vital to keep up the productivity graph. Motivation became a critical key responsibility areas (KRA). HR practices: Recruitment, on-boarding, and learning and development will remain impacted. Recruitment is likely to focus on tech-savvy talents who can perform better in a predominantly digital workplace. Processes for on-boarding new hires will have to change to become fully digital. Training and skilling will reconfigure for an online-only mode. Integrity and commitment: Standard attendance and leave policies will no longer work. Organizations will have to place a higher degree of trust in the integrity and commitment of employees working remotely. Technology adoption: Having larger remote workforces will push organizations to ramp up technology adoption and digitalization, enable dispersed operations, and collaborative functioning. EMPLOYEE ISSUES Employees who were displaced during the crisis found that the negative impact of being retrenched touched all aspects of their health, from their physical and mental well being, to their financial and social security. Major concerns of employees centered about their…