Last week?s killing of LK Chaudhury, the India head of Italian auto-parts company Graziano, and assault on Kashir Dwivedi, CEO of US-based Expedience e-solutions? India Ltd will further amplify the security measures global companies take in India. Both incidents occurred in Noida, while the former was ?an industrial relations issue? wherein a mob of operators took out their frustration on the CEO, the latter was a case of ?damage or threat to life?.
?Global companies will definitely have ?a lot of concerns? after these incidents. A third party agency which acts as a warning system for US-based Honeywell?s employees has sent out worldwide ?travel alerts? to the company?s employees who are visiting places such as Delhi and Pakistan after attacks on multinational companies such as Marriott and Graziano?, says Arun Khazanci, director operations for Honeywell?s life safety business and president of Fire and Safety Association of India (FSAI), a non-profit organisation which seeks to educate society on security and fire safety measures.
Protection and security firms such as G4S and Sentenel dealing in manpower guarding and in security systems such as access control, CCTV (closed-circuit television), TV monitors and also in outdoor parking lot and barricade protection have seen an increase in demand. ?Though the electronic and guarding services industry has grown about 30% year on year, total security awareness among companies in India is developing slowly and it?s usually when unfortunate incidents such as the ones which took place in Noida over the past week happen that companies sit up and take notice and decide they need to act on security,? says Anil Dhawan, senior vice-president sales and marketing for G4S and president of the India chapter of Asian Professional Security Association (APSA), a professional association which sets quality standards for the security industry. According to Dhawan, the security industry is still very fragmented and because of the lack of regulations a lot of organisations market products, which cannot withstand rugged conditions such as weather variations, factors that the APSA aims to correct. However, in the area of manpower guarding, the government of India has passed the Private Security Regulation Act (PSRA) of 2005 stating parameters on areas such as training, discipline and grooming that security companies need to comply with in order to obtain licenses.
However, PSRA needs to be further adopted by state governments and thus far just 5 state governments have implemented this act, Delhi not being one of them.
Honeywell International has outsourced to a third party vendor the responsibility of real estate, asset management and physical security, as they have no faith in the law of the land.
According to Khazanci, ?Life safety is on the top of the agenda for any multinational company and these companies struggle with the lack of codes and practices on basic security in India.? Khazanci adds, ?While we want business to go on as usual, inside our premises we have tried to ensure that we are as insusceptible to such incidents as possible and have set strict internal standards and guidelines. Recently, at our factory in Gurgaon, our security chief advisor has insisted that visitors park vehicles outside the factory building gate to ensure safety and threat of any bomb attack.? Honeywell which employs 6,000 people in India and has factories across the country and is constantly reviewing and upgrading security measures with their vendors.
Closer home, Punkaj Shankar, Global Head?HR at Infogain, a mid sized IT company which employs about 700 employees in Noida adds, ?incidents such as these will definitely reduce foreign investment into Uttar Pradesh and senior level executives will now feel afraid to deal with and weed out non-performers, a phenomena which is a reality in the corporate world.?
Infogain has placed a gunman at the Noida facility during the day as well as the night shift, a precaution typically considered unnecessary for an IT company. Honda Siel Cars which has ambitious plans in India and employs about 4,000 employees in Greater Noida and will be opening its second factory in Rajasthan said that the incident was unfortunate and the company did feel concerned. Vice president marketing, Jnaneswar Sen added, ?Since the incident, Honda?s management is in touch with the local authority and administration of Greater Noida and has also had discussions with union member etc but so far the company has not enhanced security in the factory as the management enjoys an amicable relationship with its employees.? Similar reactions resonate from both local and global companies. Allied Export Industries, which employs 5,000 people in five factories in NCR including three in Noida is discouraged with the developments of the past week. Hari Kapoor, CEO of Allied Export added, ?Lawlessness is not something unique to the North but is present all over India, as has been recently seen in the Tata Nano case in Singur.?