Category: Latest

La Maison Royale, Nairobi, is a 4-star superior boutique business hotel with a ‘French taste,’ state-of-the-art facility and close to the entertainment in the Westland neighborhood, La Maison Royale is a unique experience. La Maison Royale prides itself with the friendly staff and the practical touches that make being away from home easier, whether a person books their rooms by day, week or longer. Travelling for business, looking for temporary or corporate housing, needing short-term housing during relocation, or planning a weekend getaway, La Maison Royale has a solution that will fit everyone’s budget. Challenges La Maison Royale has their prominent presence across several locations in Nairobi. Considering this, they required seamless connectivity within sites. A system for call accounting, budgeting and routing with hospitality features was their primary requirement. Furthermore, a comprehensive and scalable solution that does not need a transformation in the coming years was their main challenge. The hotel infrastructure required a centralized communication management of all business communication. Besides, they were looking for a multi-site connectivity with call accounting and call budgeting.     Solution Matrix addressed these challenges by proposing SARVAM UCS, which is a unified communication server for modern enterprises that manages all business communications from one place. SARVAM UCS is an enterprise-grade unified communications solution that offers La Maison Royale the much needed collaboration, communication, messaging and mobility between multi-locational sites. Unifying all the communication networks and devices provides users with the flexibility of accessing the calls, messaging and voice mails from any of the devices irrespective of their location. Results Unified Communication for workforce collaboration and better customer responsiveness: Call management and the ability to connect from anywhere, anytime and with anyone. Simple administration and management due to webbased configuration.  Enhanced customer responsiveness to customer/ clients.  Scalability to expand their business footprints in the future.  Leverages existing infrastructure and connect on a common communication platform.  IP-solution at core and application upgradation paths that renews and extends investment.  

  Maharashtra’s pioneering educational institution, Sanjivani Group of Institutes, has ensured the health and safety of all the stakeholders through Prama Hikvision’s advanced temperature screening solutions. It is one of the finest examples of back to the business applications being successfully implemented in the education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. With Empowering thousands of young students through education in the rural Maharashtra as the mission, Sanjivani Group of Institutes situated at Kopargaon, Ahmednagar, is a premier institute for MBA, Engineering, Pharmacy, Nursing and Diploma studies. The Sanjivani Rural Education Society (SRES), was established by Hon’ble Shankarrao Genuji Kolhe in 1983, at Kopargaon, rural domain in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, India. As the educational scenario changed and evolved with time, the management understood the need and added a number of courses under the umbrella of the Sanjivani Rural Education Society (SRES), which subsequently established the Sanjivani College of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Sanjivani Senior College, Sanjivani Junior College, Sanjivani Group of Schools including Sanjivani International school, Shirdi and Sanjivani International school, Navi Mumbai. Health and Safety challenges When the pandemic crisis occurred, there were a lot of discussions and deliberations among the Sanjivani Group’s management. They were getting prepared for it, by analysing all the challenges faced during the lockdown and specific criteria for the situation. “We are sure the educational institutes in the post lockdown scenario will be facing a whole new set of health, safety and security challenges related to temperature screening, social distancing and crowd flow control. These challenges are relatively new challenges compared to the traditional education security challenges. We decided to take these challenges head on, to match up to the expectations of all our stakeholders,” said Amit N Kolhe, Managing Trustee, Sanjivani Rural Education Society (SRES). Technology innovations The management was looking for a temperature screening solution that can be used for teaching faculty, staff, students and visitors to comply with the health and safety guidelines. The request for the proof of concept was floated in the market. It was a pleasant surprise, the OEM and SI partner were ready within a shortest possible time. They offered a robust solution, the effectiveness of the temperature screening solution for operational safety was unmatched. The AI detection function ensured that there were no recurring false alarms. Temperature screening installations Many advanced artificial intelligence (AI) enabled temperature screening solutions were installed in Sanjivani Group of institutes to comply with health and safety guidelines. The seamless integration of these solutions was done to ensure students, faculty and staff should be safe in the ongoing pandemic situation. Win-win experience The Sanjivani Group of Institute’s association with Prama Hikvision has evolved over the time. It was a win-win experience for both the sides. Advantages   The management did extensive study and research, they found out what are the critical requirements. The Sanjivani Group of institutes’ campus on a regular day had 8000 students present, it was a gigantic challenge for the management. The temperature screening solutions provided by Prama Hikvision really helped to do the temperature screening of the visitors. It also helped in bifurcating and identifying the unauthorized visitors coming to the campus.     Being on the management side, it was important for us to make sure that best of the best technologies was given to students and stakeholders. We have given maximum focus on safety and security of the education ecosystem. We think it worked very well for us. We are really thankful to Prama Hikvision for providing all the solutions and lots of value added services. Installing security system is one aspect, but service is another, which is really an important factor. Prama Hikvision supported us by giving the excellent service “We have ensured that proper training is given to our security personnel and staff to handle the security systems, solutions and IT solutions back end. The temperature screening solutions worked very well for our requirements. Earlier we had to screen the students and staff one by one, which was quite cumbersome. Now with the latest AI enabled temperature screening solution we are able to screen a large number of students and staff at a much faster rate. It has really helped us a lot,” said Amit N Kolhe. “Temperature screening solutions project for Sanjivani Group of Institutes, Kopargaon was a great learning experience. We value Prama Hikvision’s experience and expertise in providing the latest and innovative security solutions. They work very well with vendor partners to deliver solutions that suit the requirements. Their professionalism and quality services are always appreciated. We find their objective advice very valuable, while designing security solutions and selecting equipment to install,” said Hemant Rokade – Director Sales, OM Agency, Prama Hikvision’s System Integration Partner.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organizations to adapt to a new reality where much of the staff have to work from home. This poses significant challenges because the existing VPNs the companies had in place were not designed to handle a sudden explosion of remote workers. With infrastructure becoming expensive it’s a good opportunity to have remote access with zero trust architecture to provide a safe and secure remote working environment for employees. Many organizations that had been reluctant in moving towards remote access were found to be completely unprepared to tackle the sudden lockdown, which negatively impacted their businesses. To overcome situations like these, different business units, project groups, partners, contractors and guests require secure and different levels of remote access and often require a user experience tailored to employees unique requirements and devices. Mobile devices and bring your own device (BYOD) present additional challenges in providing on-demand connections in a manner that keeps data secure in the corporate network and limits exposure. But with just remote access there also comes the vulnerability of an opportune moment for the hackers to execute cyber-attacks and gain access to sensitive data of commercial value.   The increasing global spike in the number of phishing emails from last few months is not new to anyone. These have been indicating a serious and targeted attempt to exploit the anxiety related to the pandemic. Remote access in combination with zero trust is the perfect solution to counter such threats. With Array’s Network ADC, SSL VPN and WAF solutions, organizations will be at an advantage. This combined with zero trust – a security concept centered on the belief that organizations should not automatically trust anything inside or outside its perimeters and instead must verify anything and everything trying to connect before granting access gives organizations an edge like never before Array’s secure remote access solutions provide greater levels of security, a greater range of access methods, a broader range of device support and the ability to provide differentiated, identity-based access tailored to the needs of multiple communities of interest. Besides, with Array’s secure mobile access solution, sensitive data remains protected on the enterprise network and is accessible anytime, anywhere, so BYOD becomes an advantage rather than a threat to security. Mitigating risks associated with business continuity events and realizing gains through higher employee productivity are driving increased demand for remote access. While traditional VPNs are well suited for giving remote access to employees they are not as adept at supporting office workers. Remote access can be cost-effectively scaled for as many workers as needed even from a single appliance. It’s not just employees, even third-party vendors who work remotely have the advantage of being under the protection of Array’s remote access solutions. What’s more, because data never leaves the network, security is assured. The Covid-19 situation has led to a significant rise in phishing attacks and social engineering scams. Threat actors are using Covid-19 themes to trick users into clicking on malicious links that spread ransomware, harvest credentials and so on, and to fight these threats organizations need rigid security measures. They need to keep in mind that a zero trust framework cannot be implemented without a secure tool for remote access. Zero trust has many benefits when combined with remote access. It can help organizations cut back on complexity, reduce its attack surface, and increase visibility for auditing and compliance. There are a few best practices when configuring remote access within a zero trust framework like strict authentication rules, restrict authorization and auditing. The zero trust architecture is similar to one-toone segmentation and helps in preventing DDoS attack, server scanning, application exploits, man-in-the-middle attacks and SQL injection. It is all the more important now to have a network security model that verifies the user for the organization at every step of the way and all the time. With the combination of remote access and zero trust, organizations find an answer to the security concerns during the pandemic times.  

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 onground. 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 organizations, HR & employees. Corporate governance is a mechanism which has key roles for board of directors and the management. The functional relationship between them is a bond tied with the thin wire of corporate culture, mutual understanding and regulatory guidelines. COVID 19 has transformed this space to usher in more transparency and obliterate the opaque side of the management. In this series of five articles so far, he has attempted to discuss the impact of COVID 19 over organizations with reference to roles of HR, people, processes, technology and corporate governance, and will be closing the series.   INTRODUCTION COVID-19 has created unique and very profound challenges. During the COVID-19 pandemic, with organizations facing high-stakes, high speed decision making, the need for good governance and risk management practices has never been felt greater. Just as boards and senior executives settled into new, enhanced governance processes, their operating environments have abruptly changed with COVID-19. The COVID-19 catastrophe has not only posed an unprecedented governance challenge, it has also ushered in a period of great experimentation, a time for boards both to question old habits and imagine new possibilities – from creative approaches to maintaining effective communication in virtual boardrooms to establish new ties with external peers, from diving into operational minutiae to preparing for long-term survival, and from managing financial details to ensuring that the employees are healthy and safe. The global perspective In light of the fast changing environment, globally across the spectrum of industries and sectors, it is emerging that the management and boards of directors should continually review their practices to ensure that they are right and relevant for the current environment, and that they are not sowing the seeds of future conduct issues. Elements of good governance and risk management practices are critical for organizations to undertake in order to flourish post COVID-19. Organizations that get this right will flourish post COVID-19, while poor governance could prove to be fatal. The paradigm shift The key highlights of the paradigm shift happening globally can best be summarized as under:- Boards are going virtual and managing the challenges of remote work.  The board chair is in the spotlight.  The lines between the board and management have blurred. Boards are taking the long view & putting people first. Sharing learning’s in real-time A crisis-ready board has a plan and the right people in place. Liquidity and capitalization considerations are being taken care of pro-actively Executive compensation matters are a concern. Take over defenses and preparedness are prominently figuring in the minds of the directors and managements. What constitutes the good governance and risk management practices? Both the private and public sectors are re-defining what constitutes good practice. Navigating the COVID-19 crisis requires careful consideration of a range of issues underlined in the opening sentence under these unprecedented circumstances. This article outlines several corporate governance issues for the board of directors which is charged with overseeing the short-term and long-term health of the corporation and its business prospects to consider as their companies respond to the challenges and risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The balancing act for boards has suddenly become more complex as there are many significant short term impacts arising from the longer-term objectives being pursued by the board of directors and the managements. Some of the constituents of the good governance and risk management practices are listed below:- Maintain appropriate board and sub-committee oversight.  Maintain an appropriate risk appetite, risk framework and metrics. Ensure risk information is of high quality and flows freely.  Adopt an approach to regular, in the moment, self-assessments and review. Communicate clearly on purpose, values and culture. Active steps for Corporate Governance In light of director oversight responsibilities and as a matter of good corporate governance, some specific active steps for boards to consider in response to COVID-19 include the following: Enhancing the company’s existing reporting and information systems that are used by the board to provide oversight. Such a system would help ensure that the board is able to receive relevant information in a timely manner to monitor COVID-19 issues and their potential risks to and effects on the company. Once a system is implemented, a board should be active in its monitoring of significant issues so that it stays informed of material business risks and red flags resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Forming a committee. A possible tool available to a board to address its monitoring and oversight responsibilities is to create a committee that could be tasked with evaluating and, if necessary, adopting any available preventative and ameliorative measures regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the company’s operations and affairs. Timely and sufficiently detailed minutes and resolutions should document the proceedings of the committee and provide evidence of the activities conducted, matters considered and decisions made by the committee. If, after due consideration, the committee declines to adopt any measure considered, clear, contemporaneous committee records would then be used to support a showing of good faith in the committee’s efforts to evaluate such measure. Enhancing communications with company management. A board should consider increased and sustained open dialogue with company management on both the business risks and the workplace health and safety issues posed by COVID-19. Boards and management should review legal and regulatory developments regarding COVID-19 at both the federal and state levels, review the company’s risk-mitigation policies and protocols and adjust such protocols as necessary to conform to developing regulatory circumstances (especially if a…

Crises have a way of reminding us of the essential nature of some of the services in society – such as private security. Our Government has publicly recognised private security as essential services, but the COVID-19 situation also exacerbated the challenges that the private security industry has been facing for many years. Now is the time for urgent relief to struggling businesses. But one can also draw the first lessons learned – beyond COVID-19, the essential character of private security must be recognised in public procurement practices and the ‘security continuum.’ While the country went into lockdown and brought public and economic life to a standstill, Central Association of Private Security Industry (CAPSI ) was calling for its sector to be recognised as essential services. This gave access to special ‘rights’ such as free movement of workers or access to join duties. Failing such recognition, many warned, would mean that the growing demand for private security services to ensure the protection of critical infrastructures, warehouses and supply chains, supermarkets and hospitals could not be dealt with. Well-deserved recognition of the security sector: Private security a essential service Thanks to the excellent work of State Chapters of CAPSI that almost all members – including private security companies and workers received the recognition they deserved for joining the frontline in the fight against the Coronavirus. CAPSI launched a social media campaign seeking public appreciation for security guards who are working in the most hostile health conditions. The campaign was well received – people started treating security guards with respect, and that raised the morale of security guards and supervisors. Corporate security managers are recognising them publicly for the rendition of their good services. The impact was so strong that a majority of security guards didn’t abandon their posts even under great family pressure during mass reverse migration from major cities to their villages. Their performance not only helped the police forces in the day-to-day protection of people and property. They also helped in the protection of supermarkets, hospitals, health centres, and other services. With their support, the police also helped control/ stop the spread of the virus. There cannot be a security continuum without pro-active engagement of public authorities, public-private partnerships in joint matters of interest, and public procurement of security services that is based on value, and not on low costs only. This has been a problem since the past decades when new threats posed challenges to public security, and it is a problem that weighs even heavier in times of crisis. Private security companies are not provided with the financial, human, and administrative tools to properly respond to the exceptional demand for the protection of critical assets at a time when security is key factor. On the brighter side, the outstanding engagement of the sector including its businesses and workers, is still reported on by many media. Private security guards working under tough circumstances in hospitals, gated colonies, vital infrastructures, business establishments, supermarkets, and supply chains are recognised as everyday heroes, as many articles in popular newspapers and social media platforms highlight. Further, private security continues to stay sideby-side to those who save lives in the healthcare sector and in hospitals all over the country. Most are unseen, a few receive specific attention.   Economic challenges Still, many challenges remain – the most urgent one being for many companies to pay their workers and guarantee sufficient cash flow. Business activities during COVID-19 in many service segments have come to a complete standstill such as tourism, retail, entertainment, hospitality and event security. While the EU and member states have massively vamped up their financial support structures to companies, many still fear the economic consequences of this crisis – which are diverse. The way forward So, while private security continues to protect the functioning of hospitals, industries, supply chains, malls etc., across the country, our sector and many companies will be hit hard by the crisis. It is important that these companies now receive the financial and social support they require. Their services will be needed again once this crisis is over. It is therefore equally important that the Indian economy succeeds in restarting quickly once the health crisis is under control. Lessons must be learned, and consequences faced. CAPSI and its members will monitor with utmost attention that companies and workers receive financial and social aid, and that the economic crisis does not exacerbate the existing problem of low-cost focused procurement of private security services. Mostly commercial buyers unilaterally suspended the payment of invoices, extended payment terms, and forced service providers to lower rates in order to find solutions for their own decline in turnover – a very bad omen for what’s to come. Such practices damage the sustainable functioning of our essential services tremendously and stand in contrast to the role private security plays in managing the COVID-19 situation. Best value procurement is key for the sector to ensure economic growth and fair wages, and to overcome challenges in finding urgently required, skilled, labour to provide quality services. The recognition of private security as essential services cannot be switched on or off according to the situation. It is time for the MHA to finally see the sector for what it is – an important source of high-quality security services, which is always there to protect businesses, supply chains, and citizens, and which must, therefore, be supported by public authorities through public-private cooperation and best value procurement that respects important quality criteria. Security is a basic human need and right. Private security is not a service like the others. The industry has shown that it was always there to protect people, assets, and infrastructure. CAPSI thinks it is time the Government gives the private security sector the statute, recognition and support it deserves.  

The Indian Security Industry recently showcased its talents and exceptional accomplishments on a global platform during the presentation of the 2020 India OSPAs which took place virtually on Saturday, 8 August 2020. As a part of an online Thought Leadership Summit, OSPAs was organised in association with BW Businessworld, and BW Securityworld & SecurityLinkIndia as the Media Partners. OSPA winners were selected by an esteemed panel of industry figures, through their respective industry associations, who judged entries using the standard criteria applied across the world, in every country where OSPAs conducts the awards. Each winner demonstrated that it has performed at an extraordinary level and has shown its commitment and outstanding performance within the security sector. On the occasion, Rajiv Mathur, Regional Advisor for Asia, and the man behind getting OSPAs into India said, “OSPAs were established in UK and had the first event in Norway in 2015 and now has come to India. In my opinion and if you see the mirror image of this journey as on date, it is not only that OSPAs have come to India, instead, it is the Indian Security Industry which has now gone global. It is the outstanding performances of our security professionals which has taken the world stage. It is the deeds and heroics of Fellow Security Professionals which are being showcased now in several countries and will be talked about for many weeks to come. We have winners in each category, but I think it is India, it is Indian Security Industry who is a winner and I am proud of it; I am proud to be a part of this festival.” The OSPAs is a global awards scheme created to reward companies and individuals across the security sector. They are based on strict ethical principles with a transparent process to create a level playing field. Judges are nominated by the security associations. The aim is to produce truly credible winners and to then celebrate their success. The OSPAs evolved from extensive research. Professor Martin Gill, founder of the OSPAs and his team undertook a research project with the aim of finding out what distinguishes those who are excellent in matters of security from those who are just average. And it was that process of saying “Let’s find out who is outstanding, and let’s find out why that’s the case,” which shaped the OSPAs and helped produce a set of criteria by which nominations are assessed. In the security world it is difficult to show that you do a good job. Some say cynically that when a security professional reduces crime, the response isn’t “Well done,” the response is “We don’t need you anymore.” Security is often under appreciated – the role is not understood and success is not celebrated, and understanding why people are doing a good job in security is crucial as it’s important to recognise what they are doing that makes them good. This is why OSPAs give so much weight to the judging process and criteria. We aim to make the judging panel representative of the whole security sector by asking each of the major security associations to nominate a judge. All judges follow a strict code of conduct and mark all entries independently against the criteria set out in the category requirements. The aim is to select finalists and winners in a way that reflects the OSPAs core values: to be independent, credible, transparent and respectable. At the moment the OSPAs operate in 13 countries, with more to be announced. The idea is that in due course by winning in a category in your own country you go into a global awards programme. Already we’re finding that there’s a lot of prestige to winning, and I think going forward this will be more so the case. But ultimately what’s most important to me is that in every country we recognise that there’s a big difference between ‘outstanding’ as opposed to ‘good’, and the consequences of being outstanding are dramatic for the end user. The India OSPAs will return for a second edition in 2021. The organisers and BW Securityworld look forward to holding the event physically next year.  

Installing a surveillance solution that offers a clear view over a large area can require multiple cameras, extensive cabling, licenses, management – and the cost soon adds up. But through the latest AI-powered fisheye cameras, organizations can capture a broad field of view in a single discreet package – and gain a wealth of business insight in the process. Cutting-edge fisheye cameras: The all-seeing eyes that offer a wealth of functionality Getting clear surveillance over a large area – such as a warehouse, a grocery store or a parking lot – isn’t always the simplest task, and it typically calls for multiple cameras and cabling to be installed at a variety of locations, in order to cover all fields of view. To tackle these challenges, many organizations are choosing to install cutting-edge fisheye cameras. These innovative, all-seeing eyes can deliver up to a 360 degree view of their surroundings. Fisheye cameras work by using a panoramic lens to capture the view of multiple cameras in one single device. If positioned on the wall, they offer a 180 degree view, and when on the ceiling, they offer a 360 degree coverage of the floor below – with no blind spots. However, the most advanced fisheye cameras on the market don’t stop there. Through ‘dewarping’ software, users can choose to re-render a fisheye image into different formats, so that the camera behaves just like a virtual PTZ. AI-based solution for security and business insight I n this way, a single fisheye camera is a very efficient and cost-effective way to achieve high quality surveillance of a large or complex area. What’s more, the latest cameras with built-in heat mapping and people counting offer incredible insight for companies whose business thrives on sales. For example, store managers can use heat mapping to identify how people move through the shop floor, and arrange products in the optimal place to attract them. Later, heat map data can be compared with sales figures, for further insight into the effectiveness of the marketing strategy. At museums and entertainment facilities, people counting data and customer flow information may come handy for safety teams and marketing teams, which need to better understand how they can protect and serve their customers. And of course, one single fisheye camera is typically far more unobtrusive than a full suite of surveillance cameras, making them ideal for locations where aesthetics matter, or where surveillance profile needs to be low Prama Hikvision: Top-of-the-range fisheye cameras with market-leading extras Prama Hikvision fisheye cameras are among the most sophisticated on the market today. Featuring top-of-therange immervision lenses, they deliver a wider angle of view, less distortion, and sharper, and more detailed images than many other cameras on the market, which results in more natural images once they have been de-warped. What’s more, the in-built deep-learning-based AI applications such as heat mapping, intersection flow analysis, and people counting, empower users with a wealth of data for business analysis, reporting, and smarter decision-making.  

Due to mounting concerns over public health and safety, InfoComm India 2020 is cancelled. InfoComm India 2020, originally scheduled from 2-4 September 2020 and then moved to 19-21 November 2020, is a premier professional audio-visual (Pro-AV) and integrated experience technology exhibition which has been held annually in India since 2013. In its place, the event organizer will be hosting InfoComm India 2020 GoVIRTUAL, a virtual 3-day exhibition and conference which will take place from 18-20 November 2020. The GoVIRTUAL event will comprise conferences, industry forums, case study presentations, technology spotlight presentations and networking sessions. On the virtual event, Richard Tan, Executive Director of the event’s organizer InfoCommAsia said, “We are mindful of the valuable role that InfoComm India has played over the last eight years, as a nexus for business and knowledge exchange. “This role is especially important now given the speed and scale of digital transformation which is taking place in India, and GoVIRTUAL, which is accessible 24/7, for free, from anywhere in the world will ensure its continuity.” Mr Tan also added, “InfoComm India has developed over the years to be more than just an exhibition. India’s AV community has made it a place where they all congregate, network, collaborate and renew friendships. “It saddens us to have to make this difficult but necessary decision to cancel the in-person show this year for the first time since 2013. With travel restrictions and health concerns, we would not have been able to ensure an enjoyable and productive experience for our exhibitors and visitors, which has always been the case. With health and safety as our first priority, it is incumbent upon us as organizers to make the right decision for all our stakeholders.” The team has earmarked the next InfoComm India event to take place from 15-17 September 2021 at the Bombay Exhibition Center. Organizer Event Manager A Project of InfoComm Asia Pte. Ltd. extends its influence through three marquee shows: InfoComm Southeast Asia, Beijing InfoComm China and InfoComm India. Each show comprises an exhibition that showcases the world’s most cutting-edge and in-demand inventions, and a summit that presents learning opportunities. Bringing together industry players and top-level decision-makers from across all industries, the shows enable industry players to tap into the vast potential presented by the professional audio-visual and integrated experience technology markets of each country and region.  

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 widespread disruption caused by COVID 19 across the board in all contours of the industry. The spontaneous and immediate impact was on the organizations, HR & employees. Leadership roles have seen curative changes in HR which are already transforming the role of the HR and will be more prominently seen even in post COVID 19 period. In this series on HR roles, here he attempts to de-cypher and unfold the inevitable. INTRODUCTION COVID-19 has not just changed the world but also changed the DNA of our HR functions & workplace ecosystem in many ways. Our HR leaders must change as well, so as to lead effectively in this COVID induced stressed time. If this pandemic experience has taught us anything, it’s just that leadership matters. For many organizations facing decidedly fragile futures, it may matter more than ever as the country tries to emerge from forced hibernation and rebuild a broken economy. Throughout this tragedy, amidst various contradictory and conflicting view-points; we are witness to certain leadership traits and approaches that have made the difference between life and death. Similarly, our organizations will require distinct leadership traits to restore and revive stressed and flailing supply chains, product lines, and even entire industries. Just as things were looking up for global economies, COVID-19 struck and started disrupting human routine, lifestyle, businesses and the global economy. The overall economic impact of the pandemic will overshadow operations for years to come. Yet, in so much of chaos, one aspect that stood out was the ability of HR leaders across the globe to hold all ends together and fix gaps quickly to ensure continuity of their businesses. Since mid-February 2020, ‘This is Our Moment’ unequivocally and rightfully so because this crisis put the HR function in the radar of importance, visibility, and influence. HR functions have become the most sought-after for their ability to control the damage. They come up with contingency plans, and then control the endless complexity of people management – all this while keeping the spirit of the organization and togetherness intact. Amongst all the drastic changes, the biggest efforts have gone into the immediate shift to ‘work from home.’ All organizations, big or small, relied heavily on their HR and IT teams to ensure the well being of their people while they deliver on business-critical processes from home. Pre Covid Leadership. This has been discussed threadbare in my previous article in the HR series and needs no amplification at the cost of space, hence the same is being dropped. LEADERSHIP DURING COVID 19 When COVID started to spread rapidly, crisis response became the top priority for HR. The CEOs, CIOs, CHROs of the big multi-national organizations agree that their HR team’s crisis response was successful to an extent in addressing three important aspects – communication, remote work, and prompt reporting. Also, efficient reporting capabilities using emails, SMS, internal and external social media and internet have allowed the companies to pivot to meet critical needs as productivity and absenteeism shifted unpredictably. Taking it a step further, secure and remote-friendly tools made employees’ lives easier and their work more productive as they work from home. We can’t be sure of when COVID 19 will be erased by the vaccines which are still in the different stages of trials in labs globally. Hence we are in an unchartered paradigm… space where ‘surviving against odds’ is the new norm. The salient features of the behavioral shift noted in the employee concern fell into four important areas; mainly physical health and well being, remote work, issues related to jobs and work continuity, an urgent need for mental health, resilience, family support, and dealing with uncertainty. Hence, HR organizations must expand the support they provide to employees. (a) Mental Health will come to the fore – due to increasing appreciation of its importance. (b) Employees will get more comfortable with technology – they will expand their comfort, capability and confidence with all-things tech. (c) Relationship with teammates will improve – due to virtual conversations that include repartee about family life, culinary skills, home workouts, the fun antics of kids and more. (d) Happiness and life – importance of family while WFH. (e) Diversity will be seen in new light-as employees bring their best to work – through inclusive design, new policies and practices, and new approaches to teamwork that support different ways of working. (f) Work will become more flexible – teams are figuring out how to collaborate at a distance and leaders are improving their ability to manage based on outcomes and objectives rather than presence. (g) Workspace will get neater – fumigation, social distancing, disinfecting, pest control, hand sanitizers, clean floors etc., will become more significant. (h) Your company’s approach will change as the ability to respond promptly will have a positive effect on the workforce of tomorrow. (i) Innovation will flourish as today’s struggles and pain are forcing new ways of thinking, better approaches, and fresh perspectives on problems. (j) Career opportunities – people will need people for their brand. POST COVID MANDATE In a short time frame of six to eight months, it may be difficult to predict with absolute clarity as to how the future will shape up but certain tenets of work stand out which may well turn out to be the pillars of strength for the leaders in the HR. I have shortlisted few of them which are likely to influence working of the HR in most pronounced way: Candor. My definition of candor is honesty without ambiguity. While honesty has always been an important leadership trait, this moment…

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.