India, Russia to strengthen defence cooperation with an integrated security system

• Indian CORE will buy Technical Security Equipment from Russia-based NIKIRET.
  
• The deal might help put the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) project into effect.
  
• The security system is expected to be used for replacing manual surveillance with electronic surveillance at the Indo-Pak border.
  

India and Russia have always had strong ties and had begun cooperating with each other on the defence frontier decades ago. Both the countries have now decided to take this defence cooperation forward by joining hands to promote an integrated security system.

The Russia-based NIKIRET (branch of a production company called Start, a subsidiary of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation) and the Indian CORE Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd. recently signed a cooperation agreement that will let CORE buy Technical Security Equipment (TSE) from NIKIRET and subsequently promote it in India.

The contract was officially signed by Vadim Pervuninskikh, the director of NIKIRET and Nagesh Basarkar, the chairman and managing director of CORE Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd.

“Integrated security systems are a group of technical protective means intended for organisation of alarm security subsystems, monitoring of access control subsystems, monitoring of CCTV subsystems, performance of warning function,” Pervuninskikh told Economic Times.

The two companies are expected to explore the opportunities collectively and figure out a wide range of equipment including access control and security system, data acquisition and processing, mobile security system etc.

CORE, after appreciating NIKIRET as “one of the world’s most experienced companies in Technical Security Equipment” said that they are excited to use this contract for exploring opportunities to put into effect the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) project.

CIBMS project requires an alliance of gadgets and technologies to replace manual surveillance with electronic surveillance along the 2,900km India-Pakistan border. It needs a sensor driven technology to detect any form of unsanctioned movement in water, on land and in air across the border.

CORE in also striving to buy shares in the CIMBS project, the bid for which will begin in October.

The need for this project was felt by the government in 2012. However, the real pressure set in right after the Pathankot terrorist attack in 2016.

Later that year, the Indian authorities showed their interest in buying the Russian integrated security system, according to the official website of the Embassy of Russian Federation in the Republic of India. If the Technical Security Equipment (TSE) from NIKIRET proves to be serviceable enough, India will be able to implement the CIBMS project effectively.

The deal is all the more important because science and technology is precisely what the Indo-Russian strategic partnership stands on. If the partnership succeeds, it can open new opportunities for both the countries and outsourcing equipments to Russia, not only for defence but also the power sector (nuclear, oil and gas), would become commonplace.