India and China relation effect in Surveillance Market

 India and China relation effect in Surveillance Market

India faces trade imbalance heavily in favour of China. The two countries failed to resolve their border dispute and Indian media outlets have repeatedly reported Chinese military incursions into Indian territory. Both countries have steadily established military infrastructure along border areas.

Major Issues Between India And China

•      LAC issues – Border demarcation has been a major issue between India and China. ..
•     Water Disputes – The 4 Rivers flowing from China to India are the crucial source of water for some Indian states. ...
•     Dali Lama – India's step to shelter Dalai Lama, who has taken shelter in Dharamshala, after his exile.

According to Indian sources, melee fighting on 15/16 June 2020 resulted in the deaths  of 20  Indian soldiers (including an officer) and casualties of 43 Chinese soldiers (including death of an officer). ... On the Indian side ten soldiers were reported to have been taken captive while the Chinese numbers remain unconfirmed.

Many Indians largely blame China for the origin of the coronavirus, and criticize its lack of disclosure, its influence on the WHO, and what are seen as its efforts to take diplomatic or commercial advantage of the crisis. Because of COVID-19, China's GDP contracted 6.8% during the first quarter of 2020, the country’s first quarterly economic retrenchment in decades, according to data released April 17 by the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Thus, India’s government has announced restrictions on foreign direct investment from countries that share a land boundary with India — a move clearly directed against China. It has also been proactive in its neighborhood with diplomatic outreach, economic aid, technical assistance, and the provision of medical supplies.

Outside of China, the pandemic has severely affected the production of video surveillance equipment in areas where the equipment is being made, such as India, Vietnam, and Brazil, as factories remained shuttered under lockdown orders. It is difficult to say when production in these areas will resume since virus spread and containment efforts differ for each country.

To ensure that social distancing norms and the home ministry’s standard operating procedures are being followed, the government will ask all major companies that reopen with permits to share their CCTV footage.
“We will make it mandatory for all bigger organisations to share CCTV footage. We will set up a control room where our industry department will monitor this feed to ensure that the social distancing norms are being followed,” said additional chief secretary and GMDA chief VS Kundu. Besides this, officials from the labour department as well as Haryana State
Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) will constantly monitor the factories. “We will also form teams of volunteers who will conduct random checks at the industry premises to see that the SOPs are being followed,” said Kundu. You need to audit video footage what your camera saw. As far as the construction sites are concerned, only those projects that have made arrangements for the workers’ accommodation at the site will be allowed to reopen.

China alone in 2019 accounted for approximately 90% of the worldwide production of video surveillance camera units, and its domestic surveillance market represented 47% of worldwide global market revenue, Omdia estimates, as shown by the chart below. 

Contactless technology was an inevitable demand that COVID-19 brought with it. Realizing this at an early stage of the pandemic. Facial recognition could grant access or unlock a door without physical contact, but in many instances, you would still need to open a door by touching its handle. To deal with this, manufacturer offered motorized swing door and sliding door operators. At exits, recommended touch-free buttons that could open the doors. But Facial recognition is costly, their capacity is lower than fingerprint-based systems, and chances of error are more. Even in a global pandemic, researchers are crawling the internet for photos of people wearing face masks to improve facial recognition algorithms...so, yes, the technology will continue to evolve and continue to be used.

 

The customers, on their part, are keen on these solutions, but because the Indian government had implemented a country-wide lockdown for almost six months from March, sales have been less. Even though the country-wide lockdown was lifted in May, regional lockdowns and restrictions continue, and many customers are still reluctant to decide to invest. Also need to remember India is a highly cost-sensitive economy. This reason Indian people depends on china low cost zero quality product. Some high-end customers, like a pharmaceutical company they upgrading from their existing fingerprint scanners is a significant capital investment decision because they have hundreds of readers across their premises. So, the market may take a final decision only after observing the developments of a vaccine or cure for COVID-19.

 

Some Si' s received an inquiry for a facial recognition-based access control solution, integrated with thermal screening and mask detection, where they categorically said not to go for Chinese products. Although there are customers interested in contactless access control technology, the Indian market appears to have taken a wait-and-watch strategy for now. However, the spread of the virus in the next few months would play a critical role in the decision-making process. By the end of this year or early next, we would get a clearer picture.

For a global security solutions provider, entering the Indian market begins with understanding the local customer’s requirements. But this is not easy, as the Indian market is fragmented and diverse, making it close to impossible to reach every end customer without investing heavily in a high-budget marketing plan. Security systems integration industry in India is not as organized as it should be. Delays in decision making are common in Indian public sector projects. Often there are also a lot of uncertainties because of political reasons. Post-sales challenges differ from customers to customers. Each project has its own set of challenges. These call for several levels of permissions that they are required to seek from different government bodies like National Highway Authorities, Railway Authorities, and other local authorities, before installation, which is another set of challenges during the execution stage.

 

Video Surveillance market especially regarding IP-based surveillance systems, is the customer’s lack of knowledge on what they want to buy. They compare IP Surveillance systems with IP devices that are used in general networking/LAN. The problem is that LAN/WAN is focused more on the network or the backend. For IP surveillance, they need to pay attention to the camera as it is the major component, apart from other network devices. This is where the price sensitivity issues that have become a nightmare for foreign vendors in India resurface. Competition from Chinese manufacturers is a challenge to SIs working with premium solution providers. Mr. Arindam Bhadra, Technical director of SSA Integrate said” “With the presence of various low-quality Chinese products, the biggest challenge for us is to convince our customers to buy products, which, although high in pricing, offers a better quality coupled with world-class technology. Still, many customers take cameras as just a device to watch the videos rather than for security surveillance. So, educating the customer and convincing them on the quality of products is the major challenge. Even they not bother type of cyber certification, UL etc.”

Cybersecurity threat mitigation awareness in the customer is not yet mature and, in such cases, we recommend products that follow best cybersecurity practices to ensure the IP Surveillance equipment doesn’t become the weakest link on the network. Marketing to end customers could be a possible solution, as this would support SIs in their efforts to convince the customer to not just focus on the price factor. When you combine this with steps to create more awareness of cybersecurity issues, customers will have a better understanding of what it takes to protect their surveillance data.

Several public video surveillance vendors in China have now released their Q1 financial reports that show their business being impacted at different levels. Revenue fell by 5% at Hikvision, by 19% at Dahua, by 36% at Kedacom, and rose just 0.5% at China Transinfo, the parent company of Uniview. The reversals are likely due to halted or delayed government-driven video surveillance projects as well as stagnant demand in the enterprise and small and medium business sector because of COVID-19.

Now I share one real life experience, happened with Nagpur based Si’s ACE Technologies, Mr. Ashish Agrawal said

“I would rather lose a order of 70 lakh than compromise on my nations security by Quoting on Manipulation done by Hikvision, Dahua, UNV or CP Plus.

For me Nation comes 1st.

May be emotional fool, but a Proud Indian at Heart.

Today i have rejected a customer asking me specs of these Chinese oem's. Kam profit hoga this FY, but at heart I'm happy that I've done my bit in securing safety and sovereignty of my Nation. My Tribute and Respect soldiers who laid down their lives for our security and security of this Great Nation from Pakis and Chinese. Many undercover we even don't know.

 

May be from business i made foolish decision, but not at cost of My Country.

 

It's time we as Indirect Security solution providers should stand together in supporting Safety, Sovereignty and Security of Our Nation.”

At last someone had to start, he did a bit. May be few SI's who have moral ethics and feelings for Nation can also do. Also few people who have sold souls and heart to Chinese companies can come back and Stand for their Nation.

 

Finally, dealing with government projects in India requires people who are familiar with how the system works. A potential solution some vendors have already considered is hiring such people to work as intermediaries. In a market like India, foreign vendors would always be better off with a reliable local representative. A lot of their success could depend on how efficient this representative could be.

Boycotting Chinese products & use NDAA approved video surveillance is correct process in new normal Indian society. Manufacturers wish and expect to make their products entirely in India in a few years, but there is much to be done before the country reaches that stage. “Make in India” is not as easy as it sounds. But “assemble in India” is good word.  

Download:

Restriction Rule Indian Public Procurement 2020 

New Make in India policy effective from 4th June 2020.