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Securing My Square Inch of Motherland’ Thumbs Up
The significance and relevance of the term and entity ‘Chowkidars,’ and their potential and contributions towards nation building were rightly highlighted by G Kishan Reddy – Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, GoI – at the recently held 14th Security Leadership Summit 2019 organized by the Central Association of Private Security Industry (CAPSI) and Association of Private Detectives and Investigators (APDI) during 15-16 November 2019 at PHD House, New Delhi. He credited the grand success of Bhartiya Janata Party in 2019 General Election of India to the campaign called by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi – ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’– which hit the sentiment of being safe and secure across masses. Further, he correlated it to what potential and values the private security industry carries and what influences they can make in the growth and development of the nation. He asked the stakeholders to consider instituting the ‘Prime Minister Best Chowkidar’ Award covering various facets of private security industry that will be a befitting tribute to the honest and hardworking security personnel who are playing an important role in India’s growth and progress. Later Mr. Reddy said that after agriculture, private security industry is a major employment generator and the government is taking all steps to ensure the growth and progress of this sector. Santosh Gangwar – Minister of State (Independent) for Ministry of Labour and Employment, GoI, expressed that the Centre is planning to introduce ‘one nation, one pay day’ system to safeguard the interests of the private sector workers, particularly labour class. “There should be a pan-India single wage day every month across various sectors to ensure that workers get timely payment. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen on this legislation to get passed soon. Similarly we are also looking at uniform minimum wages across sectors which will safeguard better livelihood of workers,” he said. He also indicated the intention of the government to implement occupational safety, health and working conditions (OSH) code, where code of wages makes an important part of it. The OSH Code will streamline the private sector by enhancing the coverage of workers manifold by merging 13 central labour laws relating to safety, health and working conditions into a single code. He said to have taken 44 complex labour laws to reform, and asked all the stakeholders to contribute to make these laws more effective and useful. On compliances, he said that they are preparing a ‘single page’ mechanism for various sectors to complete requisite compliances in order to ensure ease of doing business. An online system is being developed for grievance redressal which ensures that all problems are resolved within 48 hours without any physical interface. Gen. V K SINGH (Retd.) – Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, GoI, stressed upon the adoption of modern technologies by the private security agencies to expand scope of their operations. He suggested that the private security guards can help government agencies in carrying out their daily affairs like traffic management, pollution monitoring and crowd management with the aid of technologies like drones and CCTV solutions. While addressing the gathering at the Security Leadership Summit, the Transport Minister said, “Today, the government deficits in resources and manpower to meet the daily requirements of general public where the private security agencies can play a major role. However, they need to train their personnel in modern and upcoming technologies to gain trust of the government. The scope is immense towards traffic management, pollution monitoring, crowd management and cyber security etc. They have to reinvent themselves and prepare for the future challenges.” He also emphasized that there is a huge shortage of manpower in foreign markets like Europe and Gulf nations, and with innovations and skills enhancement at par with global standards, Indian private security agencies can tap this opportunity very easily. Industry needs to hire more technically qualified people to upscale skills and preparedness of personnel. Kunwar Vikram Singh, Chairman, CAPSI & APDI assured that the private security agencies are ready to help government in carrying out day to day work needed to make life easier and safer for the common man. The associations and the industry are aware of the growing need of the foreign markets which is of the size of about 1.5 crore private security personnel. They are exploring and working on the idea of tapping it. The Security Leadership Summit 2019 was inaugurated by Santosh Gangwar on 14 November 2019. In his welcome address the chairman thanked the Modi Government for timely amendments in the Private Security Agency Regulation (PSARA) Act and Rules that go in favour of industry, and helped the industry in streamlining its growth. “Under Prime Minister Modi, private security industry has seen implementation of various progressive policies and reforms in laws. Our sector is growing at almost 20%. Today the private security industry employs around 90 lakh personnel, making it one of the top employers. We hope to cross 2 crore workforce within next few years,” he added. The chairman also apprised the dais and gathering about the campaign of CAPSI, called – ‘Securing My Square Inch of Motherland,’ – which aims making every security stakeholder to have the attitude, diligence and alertness to all-round security of the piece of land he/ she is active right at the moment. This involves active police public and police RWA participations, and private security personnel can act as a bridge in between the police and public. The concept was hailed by the ministers, and all the participants in the event. G Kishan Reddy launched the audio-video of the campaign during the event. The conference saw various distinct sessions of discussions and debates by a number of eminent speakers and panelists on various topics such as PSARA Governance, moderated by Vivek Bharadwaj, Addional Secretary, MHA; Role of Youth in Civil Society, moderated by Ashok Prasad, Former Advisor, MHA; International Investigation; New Strategies and Innovation for Growth of Business in PSI; Star Rating for PSAs, Certified Insurance Investigators, Police Public Relations…
New Paradigms for Loss Prevention in the Digital Era
International Institute of Security and Safety Management (IISSM) held its 29th Annual Global Conclave at Hotel Conrad, Bengaluru, during 14-15 November 2019. The centre theme of the conclave – ‘New Paradigms for Loss Prevention in the Digital Era’ was selected in consonance with the reputation of Bengaluru as the IT capital of India and a major hub of IT business in the world. Bhaskar Rao, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru, the Chief Guest on the event inaugurated the conclave on a positive note amidst a congregation of various stakeholders of security industry comprising the security and safety professionals from different parts of the country as well as foreign nationals. This was an unique forum where the security and safety experts of the leading companies, banks, hotels and other industries, top level IT professionals, cyber security experts, professors from IIT Madras, IIM and Indian Institute of Sciences, Bengaluru, and the policy makers from various government departments were present with the sole aim to deal with the security and safety challenges in the digital era and how to mitigate the new age threats emanating from the cyber world. The 2-day conclave with a gathering of approximately 400 professionals deliberated on the contemporary issues of urgent concern to all stakeholders – private and government – pertaining to security, safety and the loss prevention.’ Loss prevention has always been a major challenge for all industries, more so in the modern highly connected world. Today, most of the business and government security hinges on information security and therefore the security at large would be at stake if the information security is not well in place and ensured. The new technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics etc., are today of extensive help to meet these challenges, and they can be made to use at a much bigger scale. The forum discussed and deliberated on these issues, challenges and opportunities in detail during the five panel discussions over two days. These panel discussions were preceded by a key note address by the experts and luminaries from the industry, government and academia. The key notes on the five panels were ‘AI and Blockchain Technology: Enablers for Business Security’, ‘Safety and Loss Prevention in IT dominated environment’, ‘Technology and Transformation: Challenges and Opportunities for Security Business Industry’, ‘Road and Traffic Safety: Enhancement through AI, Machine Learning and Block chain’, and ‘Threat to Critical National Infrastructure (CNI & CII) in the Digital era.’ Beyond the Chief guest, some of the best minds and security experts in the country who spoke during the conclave were Sanjay Sahay, IPS, ADG Police, Karnataka Police, Cyber Wing; Manish Shankar Sharma, IPS, ADG Police, MP and a renowned expert on International Security, Counter Terrorism and Diplomacy; Dr. Rohit Baluja, President, Institute of Road Traffic Education; Lt Gen Rajesh Pant (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM – Chairman, National Cyber Security Council, India, and so on. New concepts & future technologies The conclave put its mind together to include in discussion, security in every field such as business places, road safety, data safety, and personal privacy and so on, and also how the existing and emerging technologies will help enhance them. The discussions were intense and focussed to mitigate the immediate and near future challenges with such technologies. Concepts like ‘human computing’, ‘data dumping’, ‘data archiving (in frozen conditions)’, data retrieval’ and ‘data destruction’ were elaborated upon and the delegates took keen interest in these futuristic technologies and innovations. It was heartening to see that there were ladies who performed as moderator, panellists and delegates, which is uncommon for the security industry in India. With this mix of top experts participating in discussions and deliberations, the level, content and deliberations were of very high order. RK Sinha, Hon’ble MP (Rajya Sabha) and Executive Chairman, IISSM, who has been at the helm of affairs of IISSM since last three decades, commented that this was one of the best conclave in terms of quality, content and level of participation. The IISSM Excellence Awards IISSM leadership has taken great pains to strengthen internal security of the nation and this 29th conclave in a row showed utmost commitment and unflinching support for enhancing security of people, business and government agencies. Based on the ethos and overall organisational aim, it presents IISSM Security and Safety Excellence Awards every year. This year too, the IISSM Security and Safety Ex cellence Awards were awarded to those organizations which have contributed immensely towards the security and safety of the men, material and information in their organisations and elsewhere, and set an example for others to follow. In addition, there were individual excellence awards for those who think and act out of the box solutions thus contributing a great deal to the society. This year’s Awards have gone to IT/ ITES, construction giants like L&T and Shapoorji & Pallonji, Automotives (Sundaram Auto) and Tourism & Hospitality sectors. Board of Governor’s Meeting (BOG) On the sidelines of the conclave, IISSM Board of Governors met for annual deliberations on 14 November 2019, which took stock of the current year performance and delved into policy making for the next year. Several important decisions were announced by the Executive Chairman, IISSM in his concluding speech. Next year IISSM’s 30th Annual Conclave will be held in Delhi.
Infinova Participates in Intersec 2020
< Associated as the ‘Platinum Sponsor’ for the third year in a row > < Showcasing its latest technology offerings > < Saeed Hall 1, Booth #S1-G12. Dubai World Trade Center > Infinova is geared up for Intersec 2020, one of the world’s leading security exhibitions being held at Dubai during 19-21 January 2020. The company is a leading global security products manufacturer, headquartered in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey, USA, with various offices worldwide. Committed to technology, quality and reliability, Infinova delivers state-of-the-art digital surveillance solutions. They specialize in offering integrated video surveillance solutions with a constant endeavor to deliver cutting-edge technology. Their integrated solution portfolio comprises high definition smart IP cameras, specialized cameras such as ex-proof cameras, intelligent video management software, intelligent network video recorders, video analytics, artificial intelligence solutions, traffic management solutions and financial and retail surveillance solutions. Moreover, Infinova specializes in offering seamless customized integrations with multiple systems thus taking technology and comfort to a completely different level. At Intersec 2020, they will demonstrate the latest technology offerings which include high definition face capture camera, Starlight enabled cameras, 4K cameras, explosion proof and edge-analytics enabled cameras, NVR, video management software and much more. A brief about some of the Infinova’s best offerings is as follows: HD 6MP Smart Low Light WDR Face Capture IP Box Camera Infinova VS210‐P5‐A0 series H265 HD 6MP Smart WDR Face Capture IP Box Camera is based on the algorithm of deep learning. Boasts of rich intelligent functions, it supports facial detection and face snapshot. VS210‐P5‐A0 series allows image output resolution up to 3088×2072@30fps, 1920×1080@60fps. HD 2Megapixel Starlight WDR Intelligent IP PTZ Dome Camera VT230-A2 series is high definition intelligent IP dome camera that supports 1920×1080@60fps. It adopts H.265/H.264/M-JPEG encoding and its output provides excellent definition and color revivification degree which enables the acquisition of rich and accurate details so as to effectively guarantee smart analysis accuracy. H.265 HD 5Megapixel Intelligent IR IP Bullet Camera VT211-A5 series 5 MP IR IP fixed camera features 1/1.8″ progressive scan CMOS sensor and built-in 5.0 megapixel 2.8-12mm Vari-focus lens. With H.265/H.264/M-JPEG compression format utilized, this camera can output HD full-frame videos with the resolution of 5292×1944@30fps. The built-in dot matrix IR illuminators allow a maximum of 30 meters night vision distance. H.265 HD 4Megapixel IR IP Dome Camera VH221-A4 Series is an Infinova HD 4MP WDR IR Smart IP Minidome Camera. It adopts a 1/3″ progressive scan CMOS sensor with an internal 2.8mm-12mm HD motorized zoom lens. The camera has an internal dot matrix LED IR lamp of 30m IR distance. The camera supports up to 2592×1520@20fps HD network video output. It uses H.265/H.264/M-JPEG. 6.0 Megapixel Starlight Face Capture IR IP PTZ Dome Camera Based on deep-learning algorithm, VS231-P5 series HD IR IP dome camera is specially designed for intelligent face capturing and recognition. The camera has a built-in HD integrated camera module, utilizes large size progressive scanning CMOS sensor and has an internal 30X optical zoom lens. The camera has rich smart functions, including face detection, face capturing, etc. The camera adopts large power LED infrared lamps, with infrared wave length of 850nm, covering up to 150m for night view. HD IP 2MP Integrated Explosion Proof IR PTZ Dome Camera This IR Ex-Proof camera adopts explosion proof shield design featuring high definition, high frame rate, high signal-noise ratio and high assurance. It come with a built-in 44X HD integrated network camera module. Built with a high-efficiency infrared/white light array lamp, low thermal energy, low power consumption, infrared distance up to 200m. Inbuilt Intelligent functions-Cross-line detection, intrusion alarm, illegal parking, automatic tracking, face detection, license plate recognition Infinova Key Deployments
Smart Policing vis-à-vis Smart Cities & Role of Private Security Industry
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 implementations on ground. This has been a consistent feature of his career. Here he writes about the role of the private security industry in smart policing, and a unique initiative taken by the CAPSI Chairman Kunwar Vikram Singh on the role of PSI vis-à-vis the public police relations and community safety. Modern smart cities necessitate, and are witnessing integrations at various levels. A modern Indian city embodies people, knowledge, resources, finances, democratic, political and cultural values, and various other relatable aspects that make it ‘smart.’ These constituent elements can be classified as asset groups, or capital such as intellectual, social, technical, environmental, cultural, leisure, and/ or financial capital. In a smart city, policing is not limited just to safeguarding lives and infrastructure, it also includes the safeguarding of data and information. Smart citizens are interconnected via smart phones and numerous other gadgets. Today many cities utilize smart energy meters, security devices and smart appliances. Homes, cars, public venues and other social systems are on the path of full connectivity thanks to Internet of Things (IoT). However – alongside all these given here – there is also a conspicuous surge in the complexity of the risks and threats in smart cities. Thus, a smart and integrated system of policing is the dire need for the modern smart cities to ensure safety of public, businesses and critical infrastructure, as well as prompt and proactive emergency responders and disaster recovery systems. The requirement of the modern police forces per se was well conceived and appropriately decrypted by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the acronym ‘SMART’ while addressing a national conference of DGPs at Guwahati in 2018. The each letter of the word stands respectively for – strict but sensitive, modern and mobile, alert and accountable, reliable and responsive, and techno-savvy and trained. Very few could think that it was a concept which would give a major fillip to his pet project of smart cities. He emphasized that a professionally efficient, technologically enabled, and socially sensitive police upholds the ‘rule of law’ and human rights in all situations, and also engages optimally with the community. The Homeland Security 2018 – an event organized by FICCI on smart policing held during 26 -27 July 2018 focused on live issues of predictive policing, geo-intelligence led policing and emergency response, which triggered many states to establish infrastructures and technology driven systems in line with Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) and Nationwide Emergency Response System ( NERS) at state level. Wide ranging deliberations during 14th Annual Conference of CAPSI and APDI on 15 and 16 November 2019 dedicated a fullfledged session on the role of private security industry towards public police relations and community safety. On that occasion, KG Balakrishnan, the Ex-Chief Justice of India, who is the Chairman of an NGO called ‘Public Police,’ conferred an additional charge on Kunwar Vikram Singh, Chairman – CAPSI, and appointed him the ‘President’ of the Public Police organization to carry forward the mission. This is a proud moment for CAPSI and the entire private security industry. Being a member of the Governing Council and National Vice President of CAPSI – I personally take this opportunity to felicitate him for the honour bestowed upon him and assure him of the support of the CAPSI members and all the stakeholders who are part of the value chain in realizing this mission. I am confident that the security guards who are the main stay of the PSI will definitely play a key role in augmenting the data base of intelligence in the process of prevention of crime and creation of safe and secure environment. This initiative is bound to bridge the gap of poor police to citizen ratio and complete the entire spectrum of preventive and predictive policing under the ambit of SMART policing. Anil Puri, CMD
The Musings of an Industry Thought Leader
Anil Puri, CMD, APS Group 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 writes about the information security and significance of inclusion of security ab initio in planning to digitalize the company processes and services. The digital transformation is the fourth industrial revolution and has resulted into rapid evolution of the technologies like IoT, AI, Blockchain, Chatbots, Machine Learning and virtual reality in all domains of businesses. The digital transformation (DX) is front of mind for many CMDs and CEOs but too often security is left behind. DX is all about digitizing processes and services to make the businesses more agile and ensure operational efficiency. DX projects often fail since they involve security at belated stage, or not at all. To initiate a project, companies need to bring together people, processes and technology in planning and strategy phase for interface with technologies like AI, data analytics and IoT to ensure that information security is also kept into the loop. As IT and businesses fast track initiatives like Agile and DevOps to improve speed to market, security’s role is confined to post mortem i.e., the knock-on impact on risk and security. The thrust for giving value to the customer takes centre-stage and core security functions are left out of the orbit. The data breach in security less digitization leaves the companies more vulnerable. The advent of these technologies is causing industry as a whole to re-imagine traditional business models and innovate new ways to leverage data for growth. While the digital transformation presents a range of opportunities to the industry, it also brings huge challenges with it – prominent ones are ever evolving security needs and roles. Kicking off information age’s digital transformation has presented an infinite potential to hackers in the form of expanded attack surface thereby creating greater potential for damage since most of these devices are involved in critical business activities. Large number of companies are moving most of their data from on-site to host their servers into cloud environment. The technology developers and hackers are at war with each other to breakthrough their layer of protections. AI enabled cyber attack, called a Polymorphic Attack has posed a big challenge which can morph to avoid detection by traditional cyber security solutions. Conclusively, digital businesses are moving at a faster pace than traditional businesses and traditional security approaches. Hence, there is a need for a wholesome approach to include security in the mainframe right from the very beginning – conceptual stage to final implementation will pay rich dividends.
OSAC Organizes Diplomatic Security Run 2019
The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) New Delhi Chapter, US Embassy has been working towards fostering the public-private partnership between the US government, USA MNCs and local regional stakeholders. In continuation thereof, post a successful corporate social responsibility (CSR) run organised in 2016, the Council of OSAC New Delhi organised a Diplomatic Security (DS) Run on 19 October 2019 as an inclusiveness in diversity initiative at the USA embassy under the guidance of Gregary Levin, Senior Regional Security Officer (SRSO), US Embassy, and his office. This was also in line with the vision of Edgard D. Kagan, Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM), US Embassy to bolster US-India ties with the aim to work together for a better and fitter planet. Additionally this run does complement Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign for a fitter India. The CSR activity involved inviting around a hundred of underprivileged children from grades VI to XII belonging to a small government school based out of a remote village at a place called Jhajjar in Haryana. The school is adopted and supported by the event sponsor Peregrine which is a part of the Tenon Group under the leadership of their MD – Manjit Rajain. The run also had active participation of the faculty members of the Amity International University and their MBA students along with the OSAC members, their families and US officials who joined the DS Run over 3 and 5km formats. The daybreak run route around the diplomatic area surrounding the American Embassy was engulfed in a sea of purple T-shirts. Over 550 participants including the school children outshone everyone in stamina as well as enthusiasm and interacted freely with the SRSO Gregary Levin. The run followed community bonding over a healthy breakfast. The DS Run was a well stitched event hosted by the US Embassy and OSAC Delhi Chapter in partnership with Peregrine to support the mission of fitness and healthy collaboration.
2nd Leg of Hikvision Expo & Bravery Awards
20 Policemen Honoured with Bravery Awards Prama Hikvision successfully organized the second leg of Hikvision Expo in Hyderabad (14 September), Bengaluru (17 September), Coimbatore (19 September) and Kochi (21 September). In this phase, the ‘Bravery Awards’ were presented to 20 policemen at Hyderabad (5 Policemen), Bengaluru (10 Policemen) and Kochi (5 Policemen) for their exemplary services. Ashish P. Dhakan, MD and CEO, Prama Hikvision India Pvt. Ltd., said, “We are happy to honour the policemen in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kochi for their exemplary service by presenting the Bravery Awards. We are committed to our vision of making citizen’s security a top priority. The awards are a step forward in inspiring the police professionals to go beyond their call of duty and enable a secure environment for the citizens across the country. The Bravery Awards truly reiterate our vision of pursuing excellence in security technology implementation in India, and encourage us to further set higher standards in security and surveillance industry through breakthrough solutions.” He further said, “Hikvision’s team of experts presented the best-in-class technologies and product innovations through technical sessions during these Expos. We also unveiled the latest products, applications and innovative solutions including artificial intelligence, AI cloud, big data and IoT. We got overwhelming response to our latest range of IP cameras, PIR cameras, access control products, video door phones, Ezviz cameras, face recognition terminals and swing gates, smart pole, ECS (emergency call switch) etc., at the event.” The Hikvision Expo in Hyderabad was presided by Tarun Joshi, Joint Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad city. In his keynote address Mr. Joshi mentioned that police gets great support from the CCTVs installed at various points in the city to curb crimes. The 5 police personnel of Hyderabad Police who received the award for their exemplary service and bravery on the line of duty are P. Radha Kishan Rao, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Task Force; S. Chaitanya Kumar, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Task Force; Narmadha Chapalamadugu, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, (in-charge of SHE teams and Bharosa); L. Raja Venkat Reddy, Inspector of police (IT Cell); and Bhupathi Vikram Deva Raju, P.R.O. – Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad. The Hikvision Expo in Bengaluru was presided by Shashi Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, North Bengaluru. In his brief speech Mr. Kumar recollected how a lady police officer Devika Devi saved the lives of people during floods. He said that after installation of CCTV in Bengaluru city the crime rate has come down. He appreciated the efforts made by Hikvision in bringing the latest video surveillance and security technologies through the R&D effort. The recipients of ‘Bravery Awards’ at Bengaluru are Prashanth M., Sub-Inspector; Shivaswamy C. B., Sub-Inspector; Vinod Jiragale, Sub-Inspector; Devika Devi, Sub-Inspector; Neminath Thakai, Sub-inspector; Shivamjurthy N. G., Asst. Sub-Inspector of Police; Shivashankara H. K., Head Constable; Ananthraju A, Head Constable; Siddharamanna P., Police Constable; and Purushottama V., Police Constable. The Kochi Hikvision Expo was inaugurated by Mr. Phillip, Additional Commissioner of Police who praised Hikvision for conducting such an event in Kochi, and thanked them for presenting Bravery Awards in recognition of the exemplary services by the policemen. The Awards were presented to Rahul R. Nair, District Police Chief; Sojan M. J., Additional Superintendent of Police; N. R. Jayraj, Dy. S. P.; P.A. Faisal, Inspector of police, and Subhash Chandran, CPO 12173. The Hikvision Expo at Coimbatore city was also concluded successfully with good response from the security professional community. Hikvision Expo is organized with the core objective of promoting security technology awareness among the security professionals, citizens and channel partners. As a part of their pan-India initiative, Hikvision Expo at Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Kochi invited all the key stakeholders of security ecosystem partners. It provided the latest security and surveillance technology updates by experts in special interactive sessions and live demonstrations.
Forces Network Helps Military to Corporate
Forces Network, a professional network of the military veterans in corporate, conducted a full day Military to Corporate (M2C) Transition Workshop at Holiday Inn, Aerocity, New Delhi on 20 October 2019. GR Reddy the Founder of Husys, India’s first publicly listed HR company, gave a wonderful talk on the ‘opportunities for veterans in the MSME sector.’ He had flown in from Hyderabad especially for this session. In a post event interaction he said that he was pleasantly surprised to such an energetic and positive community and looked forward to an enduring association with them. Forces Network is an online community of military veteran officers in the corporate which today has grown into a vibrant global community with more than 5000 members worldwide. The Network was founded in 2007. This 11 years old network, with members spread across the globe, firmly believes that veterans have much more to offer to the industry and the society than what the current opportunities being made available to them. There is a reorientation required for the military personnel before they can rejoin the civilian workforce. –Col Iqbal Singh (Retd) Founder Forces Network CV Writing is felt to be the weakest link in the job hunt process for the veterans, and therefore, there was a great amount of stress laid on CV writing in this workshop. With their past experience and learning Forces Network trainers have reduced this activity to a system based on a framework created by them. Not only was the framework shared with the participants but the CV makeover of several participants was demonstrated in the workshop. Nearly two hours were devoted to this activity with the participants made to recreate their CV from scratch using the framework duly assisted by the trainers. In addition, a live mock interview was conducted in front of the participants. The interview panellists, who were practising industry professionals and veterans, shared their feedback which was found to be extremely insightful and valuable by the attendees. Salary negotiation aspects were also covered in detail by an HR professional. Mindset resetting is also an important part of the M2C transition. With that in view a session was devoted to this aspect wherein a clinical Psychologist Sqn Ldr Meena Arora (Retd) conducted a few Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) exercises – which were very well received. The seminar was attended by close to 100 people. The participants were excited after the workshop. They felt empowered and more confident, and expressed optimism towards their second career in the civil. Most past participants have reported accelerated learning as well as faster realization of their aspirational goals. The workshop concluded with an hourlong mentoring session where selected trainers mentored the mentees in small groups of 4-6 people on a round table. They encouraged the mentees to ask any questions. The mentees found the session to be extremely helpful and cleared a lot of ‘cobwebs’ from their minds.
Trends in Modern Video Surveillance
Anand Chakravarti Area Vice President – MEA and APAC, Pivot3 Current Practices, Priorities & Purchase Drivers Video surveillance is a fact of modern day life and an integral part of most security operations. In developed areas, video surveillance seems so ubiquitous that it can almost be surprising when there is no video record that relates to an event of interest. From the first use of closed caption video – Germany capturing the firing of V-2 rockets during World War II – to today’s mobile, tiny drone cameras, the steady and staggering march of technology has seen the use and purpose of video surveillance changing over the years. What started as live monitoring evolved as systems, and storage solutions has evolved to be as much, if not more, about investigations where captured footage was analyzed for clues or proof. The potential of artificial intelligence enhances both live-monitoring and investigative purposes of video surveillance, and the market for video surveillance equipment continues its steep slope upward. Technology research firm IHS Markit estimated 10 million surveillance cameras were shipped in 2006. The number of new cameras shipped topped 100 million in 2016 and was more than 130 million in 2018. In this environment, Security Management magazine, together with Pivot3, a leading provider of intelligent infrastructure solutions for video surveillance, surveyed the security sector to gain an understanding of the current practice and trends in video surveillance. Purpose for recording surveillance video Deterring crime, forensic investigation and operational monitoring were all cited heavily as reasons to record video surveillance, with improving customer service not seen by most security professionals as a reason. Many of the reasons given when respondents chose ‘other’ can be seen as specialized cases of the broader categories. For example, a few cited safeguarding their employees or something similar, which could fall under deterring crime; others cited post-incident evidence, which could fall under forensic investigation. Another category cited often was compliance with standards or regulations. In a post-survey interview, Steve Lindsey, Senior Director, Corporate Security at the University of Phoenix who previously worked in security for Walmart, noted that video surveillance was a tool primarily for deterring crime and forensic investigation. “We have a number of cameras that are designed to capture individuals coming in the main doors, in high-traffic areas, and some high-value target areas such as data closets. With the exception of guard staff monitoring video of parking areas, there’s not a lot of active monitoring. Video is used to investigate a wide variety of claims from accidents to theft to access areas. If something happens, you go back to the video and it helps to fill out the story of what happened,” commented Steve. At the large agricultural products and services company Cargill, which has hundreds of locations throughout the world, video is increasingly used for operational monitoring according to Global Asset Security Manager Joel Martin. He said, “We’re seeing a convergence of physical security and operations. For example, we’re working to develop an algorithm where the camera will detect if someone is not wearing a yellow safety vest in a certain area, and once detected it sends a signal to a loudspeaker that will alert the person that a safety vest is required while in the area.” When cross-tabulating the purposes cited for recording video surveillance with organizational and individual demographics – deterring crime, forensics and operational monitoring remained the top reasons across all segments – at remarkably similar totals to the overall results. In a few segments, the percentage which cited improving customer service rose above 50 percent – including C-suite responders (53%) as well as those in the healthcare (49%), and sports and entertainment (51%) sectors. The importance of video to the organization As the purpose and use of video expand beyond original intents, the number of cameras an organization employs has exploded. A single building may have dozens or hundreds of cameras. Inevitably, there are times when cameras go down for technical or mechanical reasons. This downtime has an effect on an organization’s ability to do things like conduct thorough investigations or monitor operations. Respondents to the survey were equally split – half saying video surveillance downtime had a major impact, and half saying it had only a minor impact. However, digging into those numbers, those who know the most about how video is used in an organization tell a different story. More than 90 percent of end users who are involved in the purchasing of video surveillance equipment said that downtime has a major impact on their organizations. “Cameras being down can be very serious,” said Cargill’s Martin, “We have so many operations tied to video surveillance in certain plants that if the cameras are down for more than two hours we have to shut the plant down.” The Univeristy of Phoenix’s Lindsey said, “It’s a kind of Murphy’s Law. If you’re trying to investigate something, it’s bound to happen when the cameras were down. So you have to be really vigilant in minimizing your downtime.” He also noted there are potential legal issues, as well. “Once deployed, there is the expectation that they are operational. Failure to repair them when they need it suggests negligence on your part,” he added. Of End Users Who Say Video Downtime Has a Major Impact One director of security at a large Texas health system with thousands of cameras noted that having operational cameras is considered mission critical. “Once a week we check every camera. If it’s down, we put a ticket on it to get it repaired or replaced. If it’s down, we have to shroud it. It’s a constant issue. We were an early adopter of camera systems, so we have some older systems in some buildings, some of them still running on DVRs. It can be hard to get doctors’ offices to pay to replace cameras, so we wait for failures and stick NVRs into them when they do.” Video surveillance priorities Survey respondents were asked to select up to three top…
MHA Launches Private Security Agency Licensing Portal
(https://psara.gov.in) The Private Security Agencies (PSAs) of the country has recently got the reason to rejoice. The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India launched the Private Security Agency Licensing Portal (https://psara.gov.in) on 24 September 2019 at the Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi. The Portal aims to facilitate the private security agencies of India with a single window system to procure license in an easy, efficient and timely manner. It also provisions for the prompt police verification of the agencies as well as aspiring and placed security guards by validating their credentials through centralized Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) before issuing license to the agencies and employing the guards respectively. The Portal is designed to augment a creative competition in the sector. Amit Shah, the Union Minister of Home Affairs, who graced the program as the Chief Guest and launched the Portal, hailed the sector as one with huge potential and stressed on the need to increase trustworthiness of the sector by increasing the number of agencies with licenses. He said that the private security agency sector is of vital importance for a safe and secure business environment that would help achieve PM’s vision of $5 trillion economy by providing employment as well as guarding vital corporations and financial hubs in the country. The online Portal has features that will help in ensuring transparency in licensing and boost credibility. With online availability of credentials, it would become easier for an agency registered in one state to expand its operations in another state. Majority of police stations across the country are connected online through CCTNS that will make the online police verification of security guards easy by accessing the criminal records online from across the country. “It was the private security guards who confronted the terrorists first during the ‘26/11’ Mumbai terrorist attack, whose prompt actions contained the damage. Besides, their universal utilization to protect ATMs shows the amount of trust society puts in the sector. The private security agencies must arrange to sensitize security personnel and ensure their welfare. There are various welfare measures like insurance, pension etc., that must be provided to the security guards by the agencies under various financial inclusion schemes of the government” -Amit Shah Minister of Home Affairs Government of India The Minister assured that the Portal will be available in all official Indian languages in next 90 days that would give a pan-India profile to the online licensing process, and appealed to the industry to join the government and start awareness campaigns to encourage only the license holder agencies in the sector. “The industry is greatly encouraged by the positive interest that the Modi 2.0 government is taking in the private security sector. In last one month, industry has witnessed the presence and involvement of the Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah ji; Commerce & Industry Minister, Shri Piyush Goyal ji; and Labour Minister, Shri Santosh Gangwar ji. Clearly, the government is recognizing the critical role of PSI in job creation, fortifying national security apparatus, and labour/ tax reforms implementation. FICCI Private Security Sector Committee has effectively driven industry policy agenda with visible results including launch of the Portal, model rules for cash logistics, and categorization of security workers as skilled workers under the Minimum Wages Act, to name a few. We strongly believe that the policy framework for PSI will see positive transformation in coming years, and FICCI PSI committee is actively working with multiple ministries to enable the same” – Rituraj Sinha Chairman, FICCI Private Security Sector Committee Further, Mr. Shah emphasized the untapped potential of the retired paramilitary and military personnel who may play a vital role for the sector. To ensure basic discipline in the employees, agencies must also try to recruit people with minimum NCC training. This assumes importance because private security personnel are the first line of responders against criminals in the society. This also necessitates to make the knowledge in relation to the Indian Penal Code a part of their training curriculum. He also suggested that the private security personnel must be in regular contact with the nearest police station and act as a bridge between the police and the public. “PSARA Portal is the result of the relentless efforts of CAPSI and MHA to usher environment of ‘Ease Of Doing Business’ and compliances by the PSI. By this implementation, effective governance of PSARA will become transparent which will ultimately prove useful for both the PSAs and the state controlling authorities. Newly introduced CCTN system will speed up the police verification of entire guarding workforce which was highly desirable to provide reliable security services. My sincere compliments to Shri Vivek Bhardwaj, Additional Secretary – MHA and his team for bringing changes and addressing our painful issues” -Kunwar Vikram Singh Chairman, CAPSI Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, G. Kishan Reddy lauded the sector as one of the highest employment generators and appealed to the security agencies to ensure the welfare of security guards. He said that the Portal is one of the examples of Digital India movement that would bring about transparency and efficiency in the sector. It is a step towards ensuring ‘ease of living’ for citizens. Earlier, towards meeting the long pending demand from the private security industry, the Police Modernization Division of MHA under Additional Secretary Vivek Bhardwaj had long deliberations with the controlling authorities of states over the issue. The division even circulated the beta version of Portal to invite their suggestions for any enhancements required to meet its true objective. Later the qualified suggestions were incorporated in the Portal. “Some security agencies are still operating without a license and hence a public awareness campaign is needed. Only the licensed agencies should be allowed to operate. There is also a need to educate potential clients like schools, industries and corporate on the importance of hiring only licensed agencies” -Kishan Reddy Minister of State for Home Affairs Government of India The launch ceremony was also…