Anil Puri, CMD APS Group A conspicuous spike in the number of fire incidents in Delhi-NCR over last two years sends a chill down the spine. It presents a very alarming and gloomy picture of unprecedented jump in unfortunate fatal fire instances in hotels, hospitals, furniture markets and factories. The memories of the gruesome tragedy of Uphar Cinema on 13 June 1997, and in recent time, the similar accident at Anaj Mandi in December 2019 tend to haunt the common man with unabated fires blazing in all segments of industry. The magnitude of the problem is just beyond the imagination. ROADMAP There are no straight jacket and quick fix solutions which can be offered on platter. The challenge has to be taken on war footing by the industry. Grant of no objection certificate (NoC) by the municipal authorities should be done with a professional approach and it should not be treated as a profit center. Similarly, industry should also not treat it as a cost center. Following measures, if implemented with sincerity and honesty, the purpose will well be accomplished by arresting the trend, and thus by saving the precious lives and properties: True compliance of National Building Code by builders. Grant of NoC only after honest inspections by multiple agencies including fire safety department Proper installation of adequate fire alarm, and fire detection and suppression systems. Inevitable installation of passive protective measures like fire curtains, fire walls and compartmentalizations. Periodic inspection, testing and maintenance (ITM) of all fire safety equipment installed in the buildings. Procurement of equipment to meet the requirements of fire departments of Delhi, Gurugram and Noida. Recruitment and staffing to meet the contingencies of fire departments of Delhi, Gurugram and Noida. Unfailed fire safety training of employees in industrial units across all segments. Regular and periodic fire safety awareness drive. Fire safety audits and surprise checks. Conduct of regular mock drills on building evacuation, operation of fire safety equipment and rescue operation. 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. Here he expresses his concern about the fire incidents occurring in different segments of industry in NCR in last two years and suggests the roadmap for fire incident free environment.  

Corptive Research, a leading B2B conference organizer, hosted one of the most happening security conferences – Safe Secure Workplaces Conference 2020 at the Hotel Holiday Inn, Aerocity, New Delhi on 6 February 2020. The conference had a time-oriented theme of ‘Security Trends for the Next Decade.’ It drew a crowd of around 200 professionals from government, PSUs, corporate security, facility management, HRs, BCP and CRE, and also representatives from leading global and national security networks and associations. The event saw a house-full attendance throughout the day. The closing ceremony had close to hundred plus people. The first special keynote address was delivered by Lt Gen (Dr) V K Ahluwalia, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, VSM (Retd), Director CLAWS. His presentation on ‘Evolving Geo-political and Security Trends and place of India in the New Global Order’ generated a lot of buzz in the audience. An impactful presentation followed it by Ralph Sunil, Group Head – Facility Management Services, GMR Group on ‘Multi Dimensions of Safety And Security At Work Places – Their Impact and Future Proofing.’ Vikas Vats, President – HRAI was the third keynote speaker and spoke on the HR role in making workplaces safe and secure. There was a special keynote by Paul Devassy CPP from OYO, who spoke on ‘Learnings for the Security Industry in the Last Decade and the Future and Evolution of Security Industry in the Coming Decade.’ It was followed by a networking coffee session, which was sponsored by System Level Solutions Inc. Paresh Patel, CEO, System Level Solutions Inc, personally participated and attended the conference along with his team members. Dipen Parmar had given a technology presentation on how SLS solutions can contribute to making workplaces safer and secure. The networking coffee session worked like a speed dating session. It connected the industry participants with exhibitors, sponsors, and industry experts. A technology presentation followed this by the camera partners for the events – Axis Communications. Vincy Kwatra – Distribution Account Manager for Axis Communications, presented the latest in video management systems. Axis Communications is the leading international brand in cameras and VMS. A panel discussion on tech advancements supplemented the technology presentation. The panel was moderated by Gurucharan S Virdi from BOA. The panel included a short video on technology and started with a question and answer session on QR codes – that were printed as contact card on all badges. Rakesh Trivedi, General Manager from Tata Communications gave a presentation on IoT – technology and solutions. Tata Communications was the networking partner for this conference. This was the first time when Tata Communications participated in Safe Secure Workplaces, and their technology presentation was inspiring for all. The SSW conference, in its aim to make it a genuinely cross-vertical conference, brought on a panel for facility management. The panel focused on the realignment of facility and security management strategies. The discussion aimed to bring an understanding of the different verticals on how to work together. It also focused on the integration aspects of facility management and security management. Right from its first edition, employee safety, particularly women safety, has been a central theme to the agenda. The panel saw a discussion on sensitive topics like safety during transit, technology, and privacy. The perspective was multi-angled. We saw participation from the security heads, human resource heads, command center heads, leading consultants. Sushil Pradhan, MitKat led the meaningful discussion with Rakesh Sharma, Vishal Dewan, Bhawna Beri, Adity Gurtoo, Deepshikha Malik. There was a special master class in this edition of SSW which focused on ‘incident response.’ This was an interactive sessions with the audience as active participants. The focus of the session was to bring in value for the participants via collective learning. The master class invoked a lot of questions from the audience and kept the ambiance charged. The theme of the entire conference was centered around ‘Trends for the next decade.’ Col SM Kumar, MD & CEO, MitKat Advisory, lit up the stage and the audience with his presentation on the upcoming trends. He spoke on increasing pace of technology, shifting trends, workforce management and priorities. His presentation had everyone’s intent focused on his words and eyes glued to the screen. CheqWorld, an initiative by Inquest Advisories Pvt Ltd also participated as a sponsor for the SSW event. They brought in their views on background research, document verification, and KYC. Earlier MyGate has also given a presentation; they participated as an access management partner. The security conference was covered by media partners like SecurityLink India and Silicon India. The comparatively grander second edition of SSW 2020 validates that a well-designed and properly strategized event is yet able to leave its mark and enables the participants to take away thoughts of significance from the forum. SSW 2020 edition 2.0 is a big success, and wide appreciations of Corptive’s well in line efforts in concertation with those of us, SecurityLink India as the official media partner, are highly encouraging to take the venture further. SSW was supported by a large number of associations, including OSAC, GACS, ASIS, SECONA, Forces Network, CIC, HRAI, IISSM. Cushman & Wakefield and MitKat Advisory were the knowledge partners for the event.  

Prama Hikvision conducted the Hikvision Certified Security Associates (HCSA) Program in Mumbai from 23 to 25 January 2020. “Prama Hikvision has set the new benchmark by offering professional video surveillance certification to validate video expertise under Hikvision Certified Security Associate (HCSA) program in India. This Hikvision certification program is specially designed for security professionals. Besides, Hikvision provides meaningful endorsement to those who succeed in the exam and become Hikvision certified professionals. We will continue with our knowledge sharing initiatives in the year 2020 with the update on Hikvision’s latest technologies, products and solutions,” said Ashish P. Dhakan, MD & CEO, Prama Hikvision India Pvt. Ltd. The three day comprehensive HCSA program included training sessions on optics basics, turbo HD analog solution, PTZ configuration, network basics, IP camera, NVR, fish eye camera, iVMS 4200 and smart functions and applications. Some latest themes and technologies were introduced under HCSA training. The hands on training module included configuration and deployment of Colorvu and AcuSense technology and cameras, face recognition, people counting, heat mapping functions in Hikvision’s latest cameras. The HCSA program also covered networking fundamentals and designing concepts related to video surveillance, and network security features available in Hikvision products. During the training new 4.0 GUI of Hikvision NVR was explained. The training contained implementation of ANR technology for video stream recording in case of network failure of NVR, the implementation of RAID technology for data security on hard disk, hot spare system in case of storage device failure, lens selection according to field of view and network bandwidth and storage calculation based on H.265+ compression technology. The HCSA training program was conducted by Vinit Narvekar, Manager, Customer Trainings, Prama Hikvision India Pvt. Ltd. The idea behind HCSA program is to give hands on training and demonstration as a part of the three day intensive training program. As part of this certification program a dedicated online examination and tests are conducted after the training sessions. The HCSA level certification focuses on training participants in essential configurations, operations and maintenance of Hikvision video surveillance products and its features. It is designed for technical engineers, who have worked in the security industry for some years and have already gained knowledge and experience about security basics. The certification program is open to anyone looking to gain expertise in video surveillance and total security solutions. The trainee should have at least one-year of work experience in the security industry and be familiar with security basics. The program concluded successfully with a good response from the young engineers and installers. The successful batch of HCSA program participants will receive the HCSA certificates. The HCSA certificate adds value with product knowledge and technology updates to security professionals, entrepreneurs and system integrators. It also enhances the business prospects. The next HCSA program schedule will be announced on the Hikvision India website.  

53% Indians Faces Online Abuse on Social Media Platforms #BeAware, a study conducted by Social Media Matters, Do Your Thing, and Institute for Governance, Policies, and Politics revealed that 53% Indians have faced online abuse on social media platforms. Out of these, only 66% reported the incident to the platform, from which 52% reported the cyber crime to the police as well. Nearly half of the population of planet earth is actively using the digital spaces to communicate and connect with the global audience. #BeAware studied the awareness and perception of community guidelines and social media reporting mechanisms present on social media. The questionnaire included open and close-ended questions for the participants to share their experiences. A total of 1067 users participated in the study from across India between the period of December 2019 to January 2020. Institute for Governance, Policies & Politics (IGPP) in their statement said that the research study was done to understand the efficacy of reporting mechanism and community guidelines of social media platforms. It has analysed the responses of nearly a thousand participants based on their experience, perception, and feedback particularly on the issue of hate speech, online abuse, and online financial fraud. The respondents are covered across states, age-groups, and gender. It is found that online users in the age-group of 22-25 are more exposed followed by above 30. Furthermore, nearly half of the participants are female and transgender who faced such negative experience largely and also reported the case more than male members. However, most netizens are of the opinion that there is a need to raise awareness of reporting mechanism and community guidelines of social media platforms through various methods such as online safety workshop. The study also stated that 53% of Indian online users are not aware of the existing community guidelines by social media platforms. These guidelines primarily set the tone and state policies of the social media platform to deal with violation of rules, illicit cyber behaviour etc., on social media platforms. 62% of the respondents said that they are aware of the reporting mechanisms but a large number i.e., 73% users recommending escalation of initiatives to raise awareness about community guidelines and reporting mechanisms. Commenting on the outcomes of this study, Amitabh Kumar, Founder of Social Media Matters quoted, “More than half of the users on social media platforms have faced some kind of abuse, this is not acceptable! To realize our dream for #DigitalIndia it is essential that we make cyberspaces safe. There is a lot of work to be done by Social Media Platforms to achieve this.” 53% of the respondents also believed that some improvisations are required to build an efficient reporting mechanism on the social media platforms. #BeAware also gathered user’s recommendations to raise awareness regarding the reporting mechanism of social media in India. 24% respondents believed that offline awareness will help in letting users know about them, 23% believed that online awareness will do the needful and 23% of the respondents selected a combination of various methods to increase awareness.