Foundation and Mandate:
The National Industrial Security Academy based out of Hakimpet in Hyderabad is a training centre for the Central Industrial Security Force - a police service for the Republic of India. It's duty is to protect vital installations such as nuclear power plants, airports, oil fields, space installations, mines, refineries, major ports, hydrochemical, thermal power plants, certain heritage monuments, currency note presses as well as running the lost and found section in airports. It's reserve battalions are deployed with the state police to preserve law and order.
The Force was instated by an Act of the Parliament of India - the CISF Act on the 10th of March 1969. By a modification to this act in 1983, it was made an armed force. With the liberalisation of the Indian economy beginning in 1966 following inflation caused by the war with China - India approached the World Bank and IMF for monetary aid. Apprehending the growing importance of private enterprise in the time to come, the parliament amended the CISF act so as to permit the force to offer 'Security Consultancy' services to the private sector.
It is governed by the Union Home Ministry of India and for the year 2020-2021 has an allocated budget of 1.4 billion $.
Expansion of services:
As we have already witnessed in the CISF's 51 year history - the organisation has had it's mandate expanded, from initially protecting vital installations to becoming an armed force, to now offering it's consultancy services to private enterprises. Under the leadership of the then Director General of CISF Dr. Trinath Mishra [14.01.1999 to 31.07.2000] the force also acquired the capabilities to respond to fire emergencies. This was facilitated in large measure by the availability of abundant water within the premises of the National Industrial Security Academy in Hyderabad.
Dr. Mishra, by his own account, was even instrumental in initiating the move to have the CISF Act amended so as to be able to extend it's security cover and consultancy services to private companies. The first of such projects was to provide security for an art exhibition, exhibiting French paintings at the Gallery of Modern Arts (Jaipur House).
Among the force's more recent ventures in the private sector, I am informed that they would be briefing the Adani group about the security requirements for six airports which are to be constructed.
Premises:
The CISF training college began at Partapur, Meerut District, Uttar Pradesh in 1969, the same year as when the force was instated. Two years later, in 1971 it was shifted to Shivrampalli, Ranga Reddy District in the erstwhile United Andhra Pradesh. In 1987 it was shifted to it's present location - Hakimpet in the same district, and became known as the National Industrial Security Academy which is now under Malkangiri, Telangana. Here, it has a campus of about 237 acres.
Personnel and upkeep:
NISA presently houses and employs a total of 600 personnel including cadets, officers, etc. Their upkeep is arranged for presently by supplies from a grocery retailer who sells vegetables and grains - Farmgo.in based out of Hyderabad itself, and meats from Lucky chicken and mutton shop. The water is supplied by the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, and the electricity by Telangana State Southern Power Supply Company Limited.
Contribution to society:
Chronicling the entirety of the accomplishments of such an organisation may be too vast for the scope of this assignment, so I have limited myself to providing a snapshot of one year, 2018 to serve as a sample. Nationally, there were 345 various government, public, joint ventures and private establishments under CISF's cover. In terms of crime prevention 251 units remained totally crime free.
In the incidences of crime, the CISF apprehended 723 criminals and recovered property worth tens of millions of rupees.
The Fire Wing of the CISF responded to 3713 calls and secured property worth 7.6 billion rupees.
Apart from these services, the National Industrial Security Academy does offer training to various national and international security agencies and police forces. 40 Special Operations Group (SOG) personnel - a specialised anti-insurgency unit based in Jammu and Kashmir were trained to counter fedayeens (suicide bombers).
When not protecting our peace, the force occasionally conducts environmental cleaning drives, reforestations efforts (on huge scales, in 2018 for example over 723,000 tree saplings were planted in the state of Uttarakhand. Within the campus of NISA itself, in the recent past a botanical garden was inaugurated - Jubilee park, by the present director.
In the year 1999 an on campus kindergarten was started for families living here as well as workers.
Challenges faced & scope for further expansion:
In terms of expansion, there are presently underway projects such as the construction of an auditorium designed to host seminars. As well as the constructions of sets designed to stimulate emergencies in subways, office spaces etc. designed for training and simulation purposes.
It is possible for NISA's consultancy service to offered to more companies in the future, particularly relating to public infrastructure and transportation.
A potential crisis arose when in 2005 the Private Security Agency Act was passed in parliament. This act authorised private companies to offer their services in the security sector. Many of these companies were backed by global corporations. They took up responsibilities in non-core areas in industrial security. The storm was weathered by the opening up of new markets such as providing cover to government buildings, VIPs, the Delhi metro, and airports.
With increasing numbers of companies such as Reliance and Tata Steel opting for hiring private security firms, or forming their own in-house ones, a possible future may lie in providing training to such units and introducing them to necessary protocol. With the expansion in the number of such sites of deployment, NISA may yet serve as a key educational agency, able to efficiently train and deploy first responders wherever needed. For now however, it campus and facilities are utilised only by state personnel.
A domain that calls for intervention into is that of cyber security. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington based think tank defines cyber security as "...an increasingly central facet of national security strategy" which covers " cyber warfare, encryption, military cyber capacity, hacking, financial terrorism, and more". In a country with just under half a billion mobile internet users, and a world where it is hard to imagine an office without an internet connection - the potentialities of such a domain, both constructive and malicious are enormous. It hence will call for the development of capacities which present security infrastructure may not be equipped to handle and thus places an opportunity before NISA.
Bibliography:
CISF Sentinel 2019 (the force's periodical, distributed annually to the office's of senior ranking personnel)
Central Industrial Security Academy entry in Wikipedia ( as accessed on 27 June, 2020)
Central Industrial Security Academy official website (https://www.cisf.gov.in/ as accessed on 28 June, 2020)
Walk around the National Industrial Security Academy which familiarised me with some of its facilities.
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