Year: 2021

Milind Borkar VP – Sales Infinova, MEIA (SAARC) SecurityLinkIndia (SLI): 2020 has been the year of Covid 19, fatal for all – more so for business and economy; and future is also not certain. How do you explain it with your experience? Milind Borkar: I do not think it has been fatal for the industry. It has been bad yes, with more than four months of lockdown, travel restrictions and what have you. I personally was stuck first in India and then in Kuwait for the mandatory period of quarantine before being able to do work related travel. SLI: How far has the security industry – both in India and globally – stood resilient during this Corona pandemic? Milind Borkar: A survey carried out in the US shows that end-customers will now be more willing to accept IP based solutions and the acceptance of AI will accelerate. SLI: Covid 19 has brought various unforeseen challenges to the fore. What specific challenges did you identify the most difficult for you and how did you tackle them? Milind Borkar: Business continuity was a major challenge in these times with everything shut down. The other challenge was maintaining employee security and safety. The business needed to develop strategies to take care of both these challenges. We took care of the business side of the challenge by developing required strategies. As far as staff security is concerned, we took all the necessary safety precautions as mandated by the Government of India in its lockdown notifications and lockdown opening circulars. SLI: Lockdown was horrible that brought the whole world to standstill – how did you spend your time personally as an individual and socially, and how as the VP of Infinova? Milind Borkar: For me lockdown was not at all horrible. It gave me time to connect with my family and with myself. I have been travelling all over the world most of the time and staying away from family. This was like God’s message to take it easy and spend quality time with family, introspect, exercise and meditate. There was very little social interaction because of the lockdown though of late we have been meeting friends and relatives all the time while maintaining the safety protocols. As VP of Infinova I encouraged team work. SLI: What opportunities did you explore and enable during and post lockdowns to keep your business intact? Milind Borkar: The team did a great job by conducting several training sessions with SI tech teams virtually. SLI: Work from home has been a new normal. How did you manage your workforce during and post lockdowns and how far has that impacted the manufacturing – especially of hardware? Milind Borkar: Even though work from home has become the new normal – for me it was always so in a way, as I have always been traveling and have been in touch with my office and clients digitally through e-mails and phone conversations. The impact on manufacturing has been severe with the restriction on import of material and the time taken for it to clear customs. The lead time to delivery thus has gone up. Our production of cameras also took a hit because of the lockdown and it is only now that things are easing out a bit. SLI: What has been the business of the company so far in this FY, and how far have you been able to achieve the target? Milind Borkar: Yes indeed, this FY has been a bit tough upon the industry, and we are lagging slightly behind our vied upon goals. However, in last three months the speed has really picked up and have been able to cover up almost 80% of our targeted numbers till now, and as in India major billing and closures happen by the last quarter of the FY which is currently in progress, effectively if not surpassing we shall be able to break even with our expected plans. SLI: What are your updated and revised business strategies in the scenario to achieve the target at the earliest? Milind Borkar: At this juncture the most important aspect is the relations and the brand value that we have created, along with delivery capabilities. As the JFM schedule is all about deliveries and billing before the FY closure on March 31, we are targeting those clients and cases which we are sure of closing within next 30-45 days so that the deliverables can be met within stipulated time. SLI: Which new products/ innovations/ adaptations befitting COVID scenario have you brought out in security during this phase, and which ones are in the pipeline of production? Milind Borkar: Innovation is the ever changing need of the industry, and with pandemic looming over the business, new strategies and products were devised to reach out to the market and gather the maximum advantage. In the line of sight we started immediately thereafter with thermal body imaging cameras with AI based algorithm to identify human temperature aspect, and initiating preventive mechanism to stop the further possible spread. We did not stop at that, we also ensured that our production capabilities are well sorted and planned the fulfillment of orders which were getting delayed and the prospective projects which went on hold, so that as soon as the lockdown is relaxed we are all geared to supply and fulfill the requirements of the customers with minimum delays. Additionally we have been working on an additional IR module which can be integrated with any camera and can use the metadata integration at camera level or at software level and can provide an easy cost effective replacement for high valued thermal cameras. SLI: Layoffs or wage cutting, and termination of contract labours have been global phenomena during Covid 19. What has been Infinova’s policy on the issue? Milind Borkar: We have not laid off anyone in the India office though there have been a couple of resignations. We believe in taking care of our staff through thick and thin. SLI:…

Ashish P. Dhakan MD & CEO Prama Hikvision India Pvt. Ltd. Prama Hikvision’s key focus in the year 2021 is to stay relevant to the fast evolving requirements of the vertical markets SecurityLinkIndia (SLI): 2020 has been the year of Covid 19, impact was felt by all the stakeholders of security industry – more so for business and economy; and future is also not certain. How do you explain it with your experience? Response: The pandemic was a black swan event in the history of Indian security Industry. After a decade of robust growth security industry faced the downturn for the first time. The disruptions had an adverse impact on the entire security ecosystem of channel partners, dealers, distributors and system integrators. It led to a multitude of security challenges for security industry stakeholders with temporary supply chain issues. The security industry has followed a resilient approach while pursuing a cautious strategy to counter the impact with technologies, innovations and customised solutions. The Indian security industry has shown extraordinary resilience, and it is slowly and gradually bouncing back to normalcy. Despite the disruptions and downturn, the pandemic has also created demand for new solutions to help control the impact of a pandemic and support the cause of public safety. We at Prama Hikvision have lived up to the challenge of pandemic crisis by doing extensive research and development to offer public safety solutions (temperature screening, face mask wearing alerts, social distancing and flow control solutions). We were the first movers in the industry to offer temperature screening solutions. Despite all the disruptions caused by the pandemic, hope floats and resilient spirits persist, the Indian security market is still confident of the industry’s robustness and prospects for growth. SLI: Which new products/ innovations/ adaptations befitting COVID scenario have you brought out in security during this phase, and which ones are in the pipeline of production? Response: The new normal scenario has created a high demand for applications based on AI and thermal technology to meet health and public safety challenges. Prama Hikvision has come up with an impressive line-up of solutions. To ensure health, safety and well being of all the stakeholders across the verticals, Prama Hikvision offers a Temperature Screening Solution, a Flow Management Solution and a Social Distancing Solution. These health and safety monitoring solutions are designed to help safe reopening of all sectors across India. Moreover, they are also instrumental in ensuring strict compliance of the government’s public safety guidelines. SLI: Kindly throw some light on your thermal screening solutions and what makes it different from others. Response: A thermal imaging camera is an effective screening device for detecting individuals with elevated skin temperature. This type of monitoring can provide a rapid screening approach at high-traffic areas like airports, hospitals, office buildings, and other areas where people congregate, to help identify those whose body temperature is elevated. Using a non-contact screening solution is one of the current measures to discover quickly individuals with elevated skin temperature (EST). The detection method is designed to help initial screening of EST, with the use of medical equipment to further verify symptoms, while reducing manual testing time and the safety risk to those involved in detection. Hikvision’s Temperature Screening Solution, with various product types and 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. Temperature screening with fast deployment: For high-traffic scenarios such as urban traffic (train station, bus station, subway, airport, etc.), buildings (such as schools, enterprise parks, office buildings, shopping malls etc.), a temporary temperature screening scheme can be used. Fast deployment is achieved separately with various devices (thermographic cameras/ thermographic hand cameras/ metal detector doors etc.) This temperature screening with fast deployment is economical and practical, and the deployment process and subsequent disassembly are easy and convenient. The temperature measurement accuracy is guaranteed to be within ± 0.5°C or ± 0.3°C (with a Blackbody calibrator) to meet the needs of the initial screening. Temperature screening with access control: In enterprises, schools, factories, communities and other internal areas where people are moving through, the MinMoe wall-mounting touch-free temperature screening terminal (DSK1T671TM-3XF) can be used. The touch-free nature of the terminal makes access easier and safer, suitable for long-term temperature screening with access control for any building with a high footfall of people. Temperature screening on patrol: The temperature measurement on patrol solution can also be called a manual inspection program on the move. It can be quickly put into use at fixed entrances and exits for emergencies, for example at external events or building sites, or checkpoints. It can also be used for flexible inspection in highspeed exits, cabins, and engine rooms. SLI: What is the future of technologies like artificial intelligence in security industry and how far Hikvision is adopting/ promoting it? Kindly explain with examples. Response: To compete and thrive in today’s crowded markets, businesses and institutions need to work smarter. Based on a technology called deep learning, artificial intelligence (AI) ‘trains’ computers to do tasks faster and better than people previously could. For example, in the application of video technology, AI makes it possible for security and business systems to recognise people, vehicles, as well as identify customer interests, and certain scenarios that used to have human oversight like shelf items running out of stock, and more. This capability means that it’s now possible to automate many key surveillance tasks and business processes. Work smarter and safer with Hikvision: When it comes to delivering the insights today’s organisations need, Hikvision is a pioneer in security and beyond. Our industry leading smart cameras and infrastructure solutions, engineered with AI technology integrate a range of tools to support smarter decision making, from people counting and facial recognition, to vehicle recognition and automated security alerts. The application for Hikvision’s smart technologies is virtually limitless. We help banks to protect employees, customers, branch offices and…