New Delhi. Technologies are going to rule the roost in terms of the internal security too of a country, this is what has been seen in the Police Expo 2018 concluded in New Delhi recently.
Held on July 26-27, the Police Expo aimed at creating awareness among young Superintendents of Police from States and Commandants from CAPFs, regarding latest technologies in areas such as Artificial Intelligence; Predictive Policing / Crime Analytics/ Big data Analytics; Geospatial Technology; Cyber Crime; Surveillance Tracking & UAVs; CCTV Equipment, for effective delivery of Police Services to citizens.
The two-day Expo was organised by Bureau of Police Research & Training (BPR&D) in partnership with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) with the theme ‘Predictive Police & Contemporary Challenges for Indian Police Forces’.
Inaugurating the event, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh envisioned a tech-savvy police force capable of providing security to the citizens even as the physical and emotional needs of a policeman are given the care they deserved from senior officers.
Underlining the need for police organisations to collaborate with leading institutes to find innovative solutions in technology and management, he stated that there was need to adopt indigenous technological solutions in order to cut imports. He added that there was a need to make the best use of presently available technologies and think of out-of-the-box ideas to find problem based solutions.
The event was attended by several dignitaries including Director, Intelligence Bureau, Rajiv Jain, Director General, BPR&D, Dr AP Maheshwari and Lt. Governor of Pudicherry, Dr Kiran Bedi, among others. There was an impressive turnout of officers from the SPFs and CAPFs and representatives of major investigative agencies.
One notable difference in this seminar was the objective to identify the technologies and products available and to shortlist the products for suo moto screening and validation by an inter services committee. The purpose was to fast track the identification of suitable products and make them available for down selection by the services.
This also focussed on ‘Smart Cities’ and how safety was an integral and important part of every smart city. Through the two days various speakers brought out the salient points of this very topical subject.
Sharing her experiences on the occasion Ritu Saini, the very brave acid attack survivor, stressed that the development of smart cities should not ignore the human angle. She made a very pertinent point that all efforts at development would fail if the ‘mindset’ of the people does not change.
Speaking on the occasion, Vaibhav Gupta, Director MKU, highlighted the industry perspective of the numerous challenges for procurement by Internal Security forces in the areas of policies and regulations, processes, technological advancements and capacity building.
He emphasised there was a need to relook at the Public Procurement Policy and bring it in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Prime Minister. The policy should be practical and doable and benefit all the stakeholders viz. the end user, the government and the industry.
A number of companies including MKU showcased their latest offerings and products and technologies at the two-day event.
