Pawan Desai CISA, CISSP, CBCP, Co-Founder & CEO, MitKat Advisory MitKat is a premium management consultancy specialized in risk management, which is primarily focused on global corporations, government departments/ multi-lateral organizations, and NGOs operating in challenging environments. SecurityLink India has recently got an opportunity to talk to Pawan Desai – CISA, CISSP, CBCP – Co-Founder & CEO of MitKat Advisory, who is one of Asia’s leading security thought leaders, speaker and author. Some excerpts: SecurityLink India (SLI): How do you define MitKat Advisory in essence, and how was it conceptualized? Pawan Desai: India and Singapore based MitKat Advisory is a leading risk consultancy company in Asia. Our mission centres around outstanding services to clients, being financially healthy so that we can reward ourselves and grow, and be a great place to work which consistently attracts, develops and retains best in class talents. SLI: What is your modus-operandi? Pawan Desai: MitKat works collaboratively with niche clients to promote business and protect their most valuable assets – people, information, material assets and brand. We consult, take ownership for implementation of recommendations and help sustain initiatives. SLI: Which are your key areas of excellence in terms of services and verticals? Pawan Desai: Information and advisory services (Threat Intelligence and Travel Advisory), security and safety consulting and design, operational support services, embedded security leadership, cybersecurity and business continuity plan (BCP), fraud and integrity risk management, training and change management, and so on. SLI: What is your priority sector – government or private, and why? Pawan Desai: We work with the world’s most respected corporations (more than 50 of the top 100 global brands). We also work on strategic projects with leading global NGOs as well as with government. SLI: How do you see the trend today in relation to L1 vs. T1? Pawan Desai: It depends on the maturity of the organization, and the priority they accord to the security of their personnel, brand and other critical assets. Most mature organisations have a value-based buying with a pre-defined percentage for technical competence as well as price. However, many organisations still have L1 bias, including government organisations. SLI: Please name some of your completed and pipelined projects, and which is your most satisfying one so far, and why? Pawan Desai: We provide Threat Intelligence and Travel Advisory to many of the world’s most respected organizations 24x7x365, and in the case of most of our customers the satisfaction rate is close to 100%. We have done. some of the most advanced security consulting and design projects, including envisioning and design of national level command and control centres. We have worked in war and insurgency impacted areas, saved lives, and calmed and helped people in crises – this is obviously very gratifying. Very tight non-disclosure agreements are a norm in our industry. However, we are always willing to share our learnings and experiences. SLI: How would you describe the security and surveillance business in India as on date, and where is the trend leading to? Pawan Desai: More and more organisations are moving from excessive human dependence (and associated vulnerabilities) to an optimum mix of people, process and technology. Organizations also want a standards and frameworks-based efficient security, and a consistent level of efficiency and user experience across the enterprise. SLI: New developers and technologies are emerging at a rapid pace; what would be its impact on the Indian market in the days to come, and what are your advices for the end customers? Pawan Desai: As minimum wages go up, the cost of compliance increases, breaches occur with alarming regularity (mainly due to human vulnerabilities) and regulators become unforgiving, more organisations are preferring to get professional consulting and design support, undertaking techno-infra interventions and strengthen processes to achieve better security and user experience at optimum cost. SLI: What would be the state of physical security personnel in the wake of emerging technologies, and how could the balance be established? Pawan Desai: Going forward, there will be fewer but better skilled and trained personnel. They would be more techno-savvy and be able to operate security technologies well. Soft skills will become more important as security personnel are usually the first point of contact. Many organisations are undertaking (with professional consulting support) cost optimization and performance improvement exercises centred around reducing/ optimizing guards, using technologies and strengthening processes. Some new age integrated corporate services providers are providing tech-enabled integrated facility, security and other corporate services as a bundled offering. SLI: What challenges or inhibiting elements (both legislative and otherwise) do you face in the industry, and what are your recommendations in relation to them? Pawan Desai: We need standards and frameworks for physical security. Current physical security legislation covers only manned guarding, and that too is getting outdated rapidly. We need integrated security standards, guidelines, frameworks to cover other stakeholders such as consulting and design companies, security OEMs and system integrators, employers etc. SLI: How have the safe and smart cities projects been doing so far? What are your contributions towards these projects? Pawan Desai: Smart cities program is a great initiative but implementation record has been mixed. Different cities are making progress to different degrees. Some like Pune, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar etc. are doing relatively better. Some cities are making good progress in specific parameters – like Indore in cleanliness. Consultants or so called project management consultancies (PMCs) are in place but strictly speaking, there is no project to manage. Project management involves feasibility study (Go/ No Go), DPR, design, design development, tender development and tendering – all of these take time. Unfortunately, the emphasis due to various other considerations is just to get the tenders out at the earliest. The role of ICT is being overplayed and the urban infrastructure design does not get the place of pride. What needs to be understood is that before a city tries to make itself smart, basics need to be in place. Sometimes unfortunately, provision of basics like water or sewage disposal is being confused with. Projects are being…

Pankaj Dharkar  President, PDA Consultants Pankaj Rajendra Dharkar, who was elevated form National President to International President of Fire & Security Association of India (FSAI) last year, has been passionately involved in providing innovative and energy efficient design solutions for building services for more than three decades. As the National President of FSAI, he took several remarkable initiatives which fructified well and became instrumental in the significant growth and expansion of the association. Fire and Security India Expo (FSIE) is one of those initiatives that he launched in 2017. Pankaj Dharkar established PDA (Pankaj Dharkar & Associates), a renowned MEP and Green Building Consulting Engineering Firm in 2006. In its constant dedicated pursuit for technical excellence, PDA has earned the reputation of providing quality engineering services in the field of designing and coordination of HVAC, IBMS, PHE, Fire Protection and Detection, Electrical, ELV, Lighting, IT, AV and Green Building Certification. PDA has the knowledge, experience and technical advancement to meet and exceed the anticipation of clients. It coordinates and executes wide range of projects of various applications such as hotels & resorts, offices, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, R&D labs, textile plants, commercial buildings & shopping malls & multiplexes, software and IT parks, high-rise apartments, banks, educational facilities, jewellery shops, manufacturing plants & garment factories, showrooms, exhibition centers, libraries, banquet halls, studios, cold storages etc. Fire and Security India Expo (FSIE) 2019 is close at hand; SecurityLink India recently spoke to him to understand his views on the current security and fire safety scenario in India, his plans and initiatives as the International President of FSAI and the journey of PDA. Some excerpts: SecurityLink India (SLI): What is the concept of green constructions and how far would it be able to reverse/ balance the environmental loss/ imbalance? Pankaj Dharkar: The green construction covers conservation of all aspects such as energy consumption, water consumption, lighting design, indoor air quality, choice of construction material, land fill, green areas, use of local material, architecture designed to provide optimum window wall ratio, orientation of buildings, use of renewable energies like solar and wind and geo thermal energy etc. Green building is an integrated approach of architect, MEP consultant, lighting consultant, landscape consultant and the structural consultant which yields the desired results. The world does not have option but to opt for green technologies if we want our future generations to have sustainable life. SLI: How far the laws and rules of the land provision for the propagation of green constructions and what more do you recommend? Pankaj Dharkar: There is a good and increased awareness in the government which can be felt by the way the Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) has functioned in the last few years. Their insistence to adopt Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) and the latest National Building Code (NBC) has automatically helped the country move towards more sustainable projects. PWD/ NBCC have started going with green certifications. Currently India has four green certification possibilities – GRIHA, IGBC, USGBC, and ASSOCHAM GEM. Some of the states and corporations have started giving incentives for additional floor area ratio (FAR) etc. I do believe states and central governments should come up with innovative concessions to inspire all developers/ stakeholders to ensure that only green constructions happen in the future. Currently the penetration of green buildings is just 5%. It is said that 70% of India still to be built by the year 2030. It is therefore important that the government create massive awareness programs. ECBC got implemented when the government introduced star labelling programs and advertised it extensively. Today each house lady knows that a five star AC or refrigerator is more efficient and saves energy for the household and these informed house ladies help their husbands make smarter choices. Similar revolution happened in lighting when LED was promoted by the government. I firmly believe similar initiatives have to be taken by the government for green buildings as well so that end customers (occupants) start demanding for green homes and offices from the builders and developers. Surely this will propagate green building environment in the country. SLI: How have the safe and smart city projects been doing so far, and what is the percentile of them on the ground promoting green constructions concept? Pankaj Dharkar: Out of 100+ smart cities proposed by the Prime Minister many have started shaping up. Each smart city has different vision and mission based on various constraints and challenges the city is facing. Two major green field projects which are fast taking shape are Amravati and Gift City near Gandhinagar. I’m fortunately associated with many buildings taking shape in Gift City and taking care of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire-fighting (MEPF) and green building consultancy work at the Gift City. I am very glad to put on records that this project is implementing all possible green aspects and smart city visions which includes centralized district cooling, centralized garbage collection system, centralized sewage treatment plant (STP) and water treatment and several new concepts for fire control & a centralized command center. The list of initiatives at Gift City is endless. I strongly recommend people to visit Gift City and witness how the Prime Minister’s vision of smart city is getting implemented. SLI: Kindly share some of your completed and pipelined green projects Pankaj Dharkar: PDA has completed and been associated with 60 projects which include 14 Platinum rated buildings, 17 Gold rated buildings and 3 GEM certified buildings. The total area of green projects covered by PDA as of today is 1,80,00,000 sqft. SLI: Which are some of your most satisfying projects so far and why? Pankaj Dharkar: The best project for me will always be Facet Diamond (Surat), having close to 3000 workers engaged in diamond polishing/ processing work. This project was completed in year 2003, though we went for certification in the year 2014 and achieved a platinum certification. This was the first project in diamond industry globally to get platinum certification. Also since this was completed…