Another great post from Jody. This story puts a little more light on to a subject we briefly covered here and here. India is massive, and if Mumbai is India’s 9/11, then it totally makes sense that the security industry growth would match the U.S. growth after our tragedy.
Now one of the thoughts I had, is if the arms race between Pakistan and India will come to be reflected in a sort of PMC and PSC race? I mean Pakistan seems to have a huge problem with PMC’s and PSC’s right now, but what happens when they start figuring out that their sworn enemy is actually embracing them and has a thriving security market to prove it? Will there come a point where Pakistan actually looks at the Blackwaters and Dyncorps and thinks, hmmm, maybe we should have a couple of those? And on a broader question, will countries start looking at their local PMC’s and PSC’s as tools of national security? Are we the new tank or jet fighter in the defense industry? Interesting thought, and I would like to know what you think. –Matt
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India’s Private Security Metamorphosis
27 Nov 2009
India’s newest private security personnel are rapidly transforming from static security guards to anti-terrorism forces, Jody Ray Bennett writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Jody Ray Bennett for ISN Security Watch
Thousands of young men throughout India begin each day in blue uniforms that closely resemble that of official police officers, and often armed with little more than batons and radios, they patrol, survey, search and check guests and clients of some of the largest multinational firms in the country.
These young men are escorting VIPs, checking luggage and bags with bomb-sniffing canines, surveying landscapes with binoculars and night-vision goggles and even using hi-tech electronic equipment to scan for cyberinvasions and other network threats for a multitude of private clients.
The company they work for is busy assessing security risks for elite multinationals doing business in India while providing them with personal, private security. In the event of an emergency, the company claims it will deploy a “quick response team” dispatched through a 24-hour manned security control room.
In an increased blurring of the lines between security guard services and the private security personnel of companies that often raise eyebrows in western media, several Indian firms are preparing to earn their spot in the global private security industry.
Meet TerraForce Security Services, India’s newest private security company. Set apart from many of the other private security firms throughout India, TerraForce was recently formed by Indian billionaire Kushal Pal Singh to protect the assets of DLF Group, India’s largest real estate company. DLF states that it is by far the “largest” in terms of “revenues, earnings, market capitalization and developable areas in India,” so it is hardly difficult to identify the company’s vested interest in protecting its businesses, projects and assets in a country that even the US Department of State has said is “ranked among the world’s most terrorism-afflicted countries.”
According to the New York Times, TerraForce is hiring “as many experts as it can,” some of which include “former National Security Guards, the black-clad commandos who reclaimed the Mumbai hotels” in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and in a statement from TerraForce president and chief executive Harsh Wardhan, the company is “importing instructors from the Israeli army and the United States Marine Corps.”
Anti-terrorism is big business
Much like the private security industry boom that was experienced throughout North America and Europe in the aftermath of 9/11, India also experienced a rapid increase in demand for security in the period following the Mumbai attacks.
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