From the Editor’s Desk: December 2014

There is excitement in the air and the sentiments are looking up, as IFSEC India opens its doors to the industry and end-users this month. Coming back to the very centrally located Pragati Maidan in New Delhi after two years of holding the show in the wilderness of Greater Noida adjoining New Delhi, the exhibition has grown in size and, perhaps as a first for the security industry, has been sold out on space a month before it opens its doors!

Also, for the first time, this year IFSEC India is being supported by India’s largest trade association, the Fire & Security Association of India. Your favorite magazines – SECURITY TODAY & SECURITY UPDATE are also for the first time supporting this premier event and have been designated as its “Official Media Partners”.

Over 250 exhibitors are anticipating good footfalls by key decision makers from the private as well as the government sector apart from the usual stream of visitors comprising of distributors, dealers and system integrators that visit the show every year. For the first time, IFSEC’s involvement with the government seems to be taking a more serious turn this year. The Director General of the Central Industrial Security Force, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has consented to be the Guest of Honor at the concurrent IFSEC Conference on Day One, while Mr. DK Shami, Deputy Fire Advisor, National Disaster Response Force and Civil Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs, has agreed to be the Special Guest on Day Two.

Any security show in India cannot be complete without government engagement, as the largest buyer of security and fire safety equipment happens to the Government of India. More than 100 emerging smart cities in India alone will consume millions of CCTV cameras within the next few years, not to mention card readers and biometric devices!

Talking to a few friends from the industry at the IISSM Conference in Mumbai a couple of weeks back, I noticed their eagerness to visit IFSEC to see the latest in security technology and to talk shop with old friends. The mood is upbeat and the stage is set! Perhaps the “Achche Din” (Good Days) have returned for the electronic security industry after low growth in the recent past.

There is another first: 1st ASSET, the publishers of SECURITY TODAY and SECURITY UPDATE shall, for the first time, be publishing the IFSEC Show Daily on all three days of the exhibition and conference.

I anticipate that the focus would be on value added video surveillance in this year’s show, where the exhibitors would be showcasing de-risking solutions using integrated systems rather than exhibiting stand-alone products. The end-users have realized the value of asking for total solutions rather than individual products that usually turn out to be incompatible with one another.

As CCTV equipment is likely to dominate the exhibit floor during IFSEC, SECURITY TODAY decided to write our cover story around the Chinese dominance in the surveillance arena and feature Hikvision and Dahua, the two Chinese CCTV manufacturers who are considered as fierce competitors to each other. This perhaps is also an industry first… 🙂

I hope that you enjoy this edition of SECURITY TODAY as much as our Team enjoyed putting it together.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a very healthy, prosperous and safe 2015!

 

G B Singh

Email: editor@securitytoday.in
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