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SECONA Shield Awards 2019

The fifth edition of the SECONA Shield Awards, powered by Secutech India, was held at a glittering function on 26 April 2019, at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai during Secutech India – one of India’s largest exhibitions on security, safety & fire. The Shield Awards are one of the ‘first’ of its kinds which have recognized the contributions of many ‘superstars’ of Indian security & safety sector – they are women and men, working day and night to provide products, services, and even ideas that can make the communities truly safe.

     Manohar Bidaye, the Founder and Chairman, ZICOM (C) receiving the Award from Prasad Patil (L) and Manish Gandhi (R)

Like every year, SECONA Shield Awards 2019 was focused on recognizing the contributions of individuals, organizations and teams, who inculcated innovation and excellence in their offerings. There were over one hundred finalists in various award categories. Winners were highly joyful and expressing their sense of achievement. They mentioned the recognition as a special honour in front of the industry peers.

The award ceremony was held in the backdrop of the heinous terrorist attacks at Pulwama and Sri Lanka, and hence on behest of Prasad Patil, Chairman, SECONA, a one-minute silence was observed for the martyrs of Pulwama and the victims of Christchurch and Colombo. He also thanked the Indian armed forces for their selfless contributions towards protecting Indian citizens and assets.

This year there was a special awardee – little P. Srihitha, just 9 year old, who recently donated her entire birthday savings to Chennai police for the installation of CCTV cameras. This must have been the first such instance in the whole world; and hence SECONA decided to honour Srihitha and her family, who came all the way from Chennai, for their outstanding thoughtfulness and generosity. Srihitha certainly stole the show with her poise and charm.

Mr. Patil mentioned that the scale of awards is becoming bigger every year that keep individuals and organisations eagerly looking forward to it. In that sense, SECONA Shield awards are indeed the most awaited and the most coveted awards in the Indian security and safety industry.

During the event, SECONA relaunched the Religious Premises Security Guide (2019). The booklet was unveiled by Mr. Patil along with Manish Gandhi (Exhibition Director, Secutech India); Sudhir Deshpande (Co-director, SECONA & MIPL); Col. Samrendra Kumar – Retd. (Co-Founder and MD, Mitkat) and Ashish Dhakan (MD & CEO, Prama Hikvision). Mr. Patil appealed to the audience to help their respective places of faith in terms of installation of various security technologies.

India is exposed to uniquely diverse risks, which require customized and localized solutions to mitigate them. There is a need to encourage local research and innovation in technology, and that is one of the key objectives of SECONA and the Shield Awards. Efforts to design or Make in India, or at least adapt technologies to the context of Indian risks often find resonance in the shortlisting of finalists and the final selection of the winners, which is what was noticed in the several awards for OEMs, projects and integrators.

Eight educational institutions from all over India were shortlisted as finalists for the prestigious ‘Safe Educational Institute of the Year award.’ The award was shared by three institutions – in the higher education category, the Sanjeevani Group of Institutes, Kopargaon; and in schools category, the Orchid School and the Pawar Public School, Bhandup, Mumbai.

This year, SECONA introduced the popular choice award in two categories through an online poll – the Security Professional of the Year and the Sales Professional of the Year in Security/ Safety which were respectively won by Sanjeev Mishra, Reliance, and Shantanu Krishna, Pinkerton.

The Amit Popat Award for the Entrepreneur of the Year in Safety/ Security was presented to Roshan Bohra, ESSL for his sterling achievements in the field of biometrics and access control. ESSL is now the leading player in that domain in India and spreading its wings rapidly in the international market.

This year, the Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred on Manohar Bidaye, the Founder and Chairman of ZICOM. Mr. Bidaye has been one of the earliest entrants and a true change maker in the Indian security industry. He mentioned that he is happy to see the growth of the security technology sector, and is satisfied that as an early pioneer Zicom has had an important role to play.



 

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