Category: National

Skybox Security has appointed Gerry Sillars as the Vice President for Asia Pacific. In his role, Sillars will be the cor- nerstone of the company’s APAC operations, fo- cusing on the continued expansion of Skybox’s footprint in the entire region, as well as evolving the company’s channel business. Skybox experienced 433 percent year-over-year growth in APAC for 2017 – including 350 percent growth in India. Sil- lars will increase hiring in APAC to further sup- port the needs of customers and build on the company’s foundation of business. He will also focus on expanding regional distribution through resellers, system integrators and managed security service providers. Sillars has more than 15 years of experience building scalable software businesses in APAC, including such companies as Commvault Systems, Alcatel Lucent and UpGuard. As Commvault’s first employee in APAC, he established their business in the Australia/ New Zealand region prior to building businesses throughout Asia – driving significant double and triple digit growth during his tenure. In his last two years, he served as the Worldwide VP of Commvault’s Cloud Solutions Group where he built the Commvault Global Systems Integrator group in India and developed the regional business from the ground up. “I’m joining Skybox at an extremely exciting time. The Skybox platform serves a huge market need in this region, as there is a real thirst for solutions that simplify and automate day-to-day cybersecurity workflows and processes, especially as networks are increasing in size and getting more complex. Companies are quickly moving workloads to the cloud – or jumping to a cloud–first solution altogether. This is making the CISO’s job ever more challenging. They’re looking for a platform like Skybox that gives them a single view to their hybrid networks, and a way to easily manage and quickly address risk” – Gerry Sillars Vice President, Asia Pacific, Skybox  Skybox Security has also appointed Rahul Arora as the new Regional Sales Director for India and SAARC. Mr. Arora has a background in cloud networking that complements the company’s capabilities in virtual and multi-cloud environments. Prior to joining Skybox, Rahul worked with Citrix as the Director of Cloud Networking for India, running their Netscaler business in the region. Previous to that, he worked for SevOne Inc., as the Regional Director for India and SAARC where he built and ran Akamai’s Enterprise group in India.  

Hikvision was part of the recently held ELETS 2018, the 5th School Leadership Summit to showcase its innovative solutions for the education sector in Bengaluru. “Hikvision has been spearheading ‘School Security Program’ to focus on the education security issues, which can be addressed effectively through innovative security solutions. The School Leadership Summit is the perfect platform. Hikvision has a wide range of security solutions which specifically cater the education sector. We also explored newer opportunities like the broadcasting solution. Hikvision presents the vertical specific product basket to the education fraternity to promote the optimal usage of cameras and DVRs for a higher purpose and remote learning,” said Ashish P. Dhakan, MD & CEO, Prama Hikvision, “Hikvision’s smart solution for schools and campuses secures educational facilities with its advanced technology, powerful cameras, and critical recording devices.” Hikvision focused on promoting the broadcasting solution, which has a PTZ camera with a smart tracking option, which tracks the teacher during the lecture and zooms when the teachers writes something on the board. This feed can be streamed live to other classes in the building or even to any part of the world. It even records the whole lecture to be played or seen later by anyone anytime. Other Hikvision solution displayed at the event was face recognition solution. This was a one day conference and over 200 participants graced the event, the notable among them were Neti Srinivasan, COO, Ryan Group; Ms. Vandana Lulla, Director of the Podar Group of International Schools; Amol Arora, VC and MD, Shemrock and Shemford group of Schools, and others. The Hikvision stall at ELETS School Leadership Summit attracted a good number of Industry specific visitors, which included decision makers from the education institutions. The overall response was good as the event generated some relevant enquiries.  

The economic development of the nation is dependent on the participation of all sections of the society, more particularly women, who constitute fifty per cent of the population. There are massive employment potentialities that can be utilized by women folk. India is the world’s fastest growing economy, but has one of the lowest rates of female employment. This is the most true especially in the firefighting industry which has seen a major dearth of women in professional roles. Women are both the victims as well as strong enablers when it comes to the fire safety industry. In India, 17,700 Indians died due to fire incidents in 2015. About 48 people die of fire accidents every day out of which 62% are women. While the numbers continue to rise, the awareness on fire safety has hardly gained much recognition. Strikingly, in this whole conversation on fire safety, the female voice is missing. Unlike in the West, where a job in the fire safety industry is revered and a matter of great pride, India still has a long way to go. The instances of women working in the firefighting industry in India are far and few. In 2003, the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services appointed Priya RaviRole of Women in the Fire Safety Industry chandran as a Divisional Fire Officer, making her one of the first female fire officers in the country, and the first one to win Anna Medal for Bravery in Tamil Nadu. In 2013, the department inducted its second batch of women firefighters. In 2012, the Mumbai Fire Brigade inducted five women firefighters, making them the first in the history of the organisation. One of the biggest reasons for the low participation is the absence of a female role model. Over the last several decades, it has become an accepted understanding that improving the status of women is one of the most critical levers of international development. When women are educated and can be employed, a volley of good results follow. According to a recent study by McKinsey, if women played an identical role in labour markets to that of men, as much as US$28 trillion could be added to the global annual GDP by 2025. We require more and more women in the industry as they have the right ability to prove their mettle in various fields including defense services. One such example can be the appointment of Shrimati Nirmala Sitharaman as the Defence Minister of India. Recently Avani Chaturvedi, has also been appointed as the first Indian woman fighter pilot to fly solo. The fighter stream was opened for women in 2015 and Avani Chaturvedi, along with two other women, Mohana Singh and Bhawana Kanth were inducted into the Indian Air Force fighter squadron in 2016 where they have undergone strenuous training programme to fly fighter jets. Fire safety should also be considered as an industry to support and encourage women diversity and empowerment. The policy of fire and safety industry to recruit only male officers might be reinforcing gender stereotypes and should keep pace with international trends. While even in the West, the number of women staff is very low, but in India its much below the international statistics. One has to remember that the practice of hiring only men could be construed as demeaning to the female gender. We, in the industry, know their real purpose is to provide the safety of everyone in case of emergencies. While women have made significant gains in the past decade in terms of their noteworthy roles in different spheres of life including education, health, technology, economic participation, and political leadership, we as a nation still have a long way to go when it comes to attaining gender equality. By – Rohit Harjani Country Manager, Indian Sub-continent, Hochiki    

Videonetics’ path-breaking technology ‘No Helmet Detection System’ (NHDS) has been recognized with the prestigious FIST ‘Make in India – Best Innovation award of the year’ at Fire & Safety India Expo 2018, organized by FSAI. Highly acclaimed in the industry, FIST Award recognizes extraordinary contribution of organization and individuals in the field of security, safety, firefighting and emergency response. The gala award night was attended by eminent figures from the industry fraternity. By overcoming rigorous stages of evaluation with flying colors and competing to cutting-edge products presented by other companies, the judging panel and industry experts highly voted for No Helmet Detection System which is designed and developed on ‘Indian Deep Learning’ Framework. NHDS aims to bring down road accidents and enforce traffic discipline amongst people by penalizing two-wheeler riders who do not wear helmet while driving and eventually put their lives to risk. Commenting on the achievement, Dr. Tinku Acharya, MD & Founder, Videonetics said, “We are thankful to FSAI for acknowledging and honoring our R&D efforts with the FIST award. We are committed to promote culture of innovation in India and to introduce such advanced and smart technologies that can address challenging environment for highly populated countries like India. No Helmet Detection System (NHDS) is the pioneering solution which will certainly inculcate traffic discipline amongst people, build traffic management more robust, increase road safety, eventually to make India smarter and safe.”

Zicom, one of the pioneers in the electronic security industry, is expanding its citizen-safety initiative ‘Make Your City Safe’ (MYCS) to the state of Telangana towards making the state safe. The company has recently signed an MoU to launch the citizen safety mission for Telangana in the honorable presence of Home Minister Naini Narshimha Reddy and other influential stalwarts by the name of ‘Make Telangana Safe.’ Zicom launched Mission ‘Make Your City Safe’ in 2012. It is a Zicom SaaS initiative to make housing societies, schools and hospitals more secure by equipping them with high quality CCTVs that require ‘zero investment, zero management.’ Apart from providing hardware, the company also undertakes the responsibly of monitoring the health of their security systems and offering free-of-cost services to ensure the smooth functioning of their products. With currently over 4500 buildings coming under the MYCS banner, Zicom looks forward to a safer and better urban lifestyle to become a reality. Taking this initiative to another level by extending the mission to cities across the country, Zicom SaaS has recently partnered with TITA and Digithon to create a robust digital ecosystem that not only monitors but also prevents crime in Telangana. Currently the initiative encompasses the cities of Hyderabad, Varangal, Karimnagar, Adilabad and Nalgonda. Today Zicom’s initiative has its presence across 7 cities (8th being the cities of Telangana) by the names of Make Mumbai Safe, Make Pune Safe, Make Navi Mumbai Safe, Make Thane Safe, Make Hyderabad Safe and Make Ahmedabad Safe As the part of the upcoming phase Zicom plans to cover the whole of Telangana followed by other states as well. The company is also exploring for possible associations. Under the ‘Make Your City Safe’ initiative, Zicom will offer a broad spectrum of security solutions on Security-as-a-Service model. Additionally, the company is also exploring the idea of establishing their local command center to support ‘Make Telangana Safe’ initiative and to help citizens connect all buildings for monitoring and proactive prevention of crimes. The key benefits of Make Your City Safe are mentioned below: The hardware and software costs are to be borne by Zicom – users have to pay for the services only. No worries about the functioning of the system, Zicom assures that the system will function 24×7, 365 days. No financial burden – Easy payment option that doesn’t need the society to block any funds for buying CCTV system. No annual maintenance contract – It is Zicom who maintains the CCTV system and also takes care of repairs and replacements. No confusion on what is best for customers – Free security assessment by experts that helps one choose the right security solution. Always accessible – 24×7 technical/ after sales support enables customers to stay connected.     We, at Zicom SaaS, have been committed towards the cause of citizen safety through our mission ‘Make Your City Safe’ since 2012. MYCS has earned Zicom the responsibility of providing safety and security to over one million satisfied residents across the country. With the spread of cities, and many cities turning into smart cities in the next one decade, Zicom sees a larger role for itself as a major security service provider to them. MYCS is the one step forward towards fulfilling that responsibility. We believe, through this initiative, the authorities have set an example for other states as well on how the power of technology can be used to prevent crimes and ensure the safety of citizens – Pramoud Rao Founder & Managing Director of Zicom SaaS Pvt. Ltd.