Create a National Infrastructure Protection Plan: CII- HCL Whitepaper on ‘Safe City’

The concept of ‘Safe City’ should be approached with a PPP model

[New Delhi, 12 May 2010]

Today, the world economy is adversely affected by the increasing threats to the security of life, critical infrastructure, economic centres etc., which has led to heavy spending. Government of India is also equally concerned and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with HCL Security has taken a step forward to join hands with Government to fight security threats and make India safer for tomorrow.

The White Paper focus on the concept of ‘Safe City’ – a concept that integrates technology with the existing security process and local security machinery such as police, to offer a proactive system that aids in prevention, protection, detection, containment of threats, along with reporting and effective response module.

Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General CII stated that the emerging security trends transcend public-private barrier and there is an imperative need to evolve a structured and regular interaction with the stake holders, both in the private and government sector to effectively deal with the challenge. He further suggested that CII that the security of key cities should be taken on a priority. All the megacities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad should have an integrated security system installed at the earliest.

‘Safe City’ framework will also aid in centralised decision making and day-to-day operational activities like traffic management, crowd management, intelligent surveillance.” explained Rothin Bhattacharya, CEO, HCL Security Ltd.

“There could be no society that can flourish and become economically stable under any kind of threat to the security of its citizens. We want our cities to be well prepared for any situation as we cannot ignore that our detractors are using sophisticated information technology to sneak into the security systems and putting lives of the millions at stake. With our commitment to work with government for nation building, we hope the concept of Safe City could be realised in its true sense in the near future to come.” he added

The recommendations are in four different phases which would help to implement ‘Safe City’ across the country and increase the safety index. The document has laid importance on the systematic investment plan with a focus on incorporating technology in necessary security initiatives, since effective & streamlined use of technology, can increase the ability to prevent, detect, protect, respond and recover from attacks and also minimize the occurrence of waste, fraud, and abuse. The experts at CII and HCL Security have also suggested conducting regular security audits based on which critical areas of concern could be identified and worked upon.

The paper talks about how Government could work on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model which will involve private parties to participate in building a secure city. This would mean involving technology solution providers, consultants and system integrators work in close partnership with Government to solve security needs of homeland and infrastructure. Such a model will ensure industry facilitation that would result in enhanced economic growth, higher employment ratio, etc as witnessed in developed countries, this has been suitably exemplified by the US Govt.’s PPP model. Ideas of linking insurance with terrorist threats in order to minimise the breach of security at the macro level and creating mass awareness by setting up training institutes to educate people about the technology and ensuring that people could understand the technology and by becoming tech savvy could be the first responders at times of emergency, have also been suggested in the white paper. By such initiatives an individual could also contribute to the state’s security at various levels.

12 May 2010

<<go back