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Paramilitaries Hired to Protect India's IT Sector

29/10/09October 29, 2009

India’s second largest IT firm, Infosys Technologies has hired paramilitary troops to protect its headquarters in Bangalore. More than 80 private firms, including Wipro and Reliance Industries, are also on the government list to receive the protection of the Central Industrial Security Forces. Some observers think the IT companies are going overboard but others feel it is the need of the hour.

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Bangalore is India's IT hub
Bangalore is India's IT hubImage: APTN

India’s outsourcing information technology sector in Bangalore, which is worth 41 billion euros, has been worried it could become a terror target ever since last November’s attacks on Mumbai. The IT industry is an important part of India’s service sector, which contributes 57 percent to India’s GDP.

Narendra Sisodia, the director of the Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, says “the IT sector is certainly a target because it is a very important driver of India’s modern growth. It symbolises its knowledge economy and is responsible for a very sizeable chunk of exports, even for the globalisation of the Indian economy. “

There has been an increase of terrorist attacks in India since 2000 by various groups, including Maoist militants and Islamists, explains Sisodia and “some of these terrorist outfits have declared in their plan that they will try to transform India into an Islamic state and dismantle every aspect of India politically, socially, and economically.”

“So it’s right for the private sector and the government to take this step,” he concludes.

Centralised Industrial Security Force

The Centralised Industrial Security Force is India’s premier security force, entrusted with maintaining security of India’s key assets, including government organisations, nuclear power plants, space installations, industries, airports and heritage sites.

But this protection does not come cheap. Infosys pays over 1000 euros a day for roughly 100 CISF troops. A private security firm usually charges about half of this amount.

But Sisodia argues that the price is worth it: “Terrorists will make a hundred attempts and nobody will know about their failure. But if Infosys suffers a single attack it will gravely affect foreign investment. So taking this preventive measure is a very sensible investment.”

Police is unprepared for terrorism

The Mumbai attacks showed how unprepared the Indian police generally are to fight against terrorism and IT firms have little confidence in them.

”The efficiency of the police force is definitely suspect in terms of training, equipment and orientation. We are definitely way behind what is required to be done. As it is, we are spending so much money on the armed forces, the paramilitary force but the police also needs to be upgraded," says former Air Force Chief Marshal, A.Y. Tipnis.

Experts trust the epithet “prevention is better than cure”. They say it is better to be well- protected to combat all sorts of attacks. They urge the government to develop a better security system with the police at base level.

Author: Debarati Mukherjee
Editor: Thomas Bärthlein