Vaccinate India against Terror

Here are a list of things that India should do to vaccinate itself against terror.

* Stop blaming any country and start cleaning & securing the house. Those countries are useless at dealing with such issues and we will only be wasting time. There is no way we can afford to go to war at a time when we need to concentrate on economic growth. We will only risk the lives of more people by going to war or even talking about it.  We need to use this opportunity to unite and increase awareness about internal security and strongly utilise technology to help us combat it. This will in turn create more jobs in this area and further fuel growth. Prevention is always better than cure. 

* Partnerships: Government and Private sector partnerships to build better & stronger IT infrastructure for the intelligence agencies in individual cities and link them with international agencies.  IT companies can help the government with the latest software solutions while hardware companies can be requested to develop india specific technologies. The government should provide subsidies to any company that sponsors security improvement activities.  

* Empower local police: Improve technology infrastructure within the state police departments. Every major city should have stattions with special anti-terror units with the latest gadgets. Pistols cannot answer Kalshnikovs. 

* Politics should involve citizens: Every major city should have a council with citizens and business representation to discuss about security issues & actions which is then released this information to the public via internet and newspapers on a monthly basis.  For ex, the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) set up by the SM Krishna government helped improve the city's infrastructure to a great extent. All information should be in the public domain.

* Budget for internal security: While we have the third largest army in the world, and a strong one, what we need is the best internal security system tailored for a diverse country like India. So, in the future, a large portion needs to be allocated. This could come from revenues, taxes and private participation.

* Build better cities: Build up Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities with better infrastructure to reduce the burden on the major ones.  This will allow for better monitoring of Tier 1 cities. Future cities should be designed with security in mind. 

* Shorten and strengthen the SSC: The Indian Army's Short Service Commission can be made mandatory for a class of citizens or for future police personnel.  A shorter & effective version of the same (1 to 2 years) should be designed and marketed to the general public with possible benefits. For ex: students with a 3-year Polytechnic course (and not the normal 4 yr engg) enrolling for a 2 year SSC can get into good positions within major companies or further career in governmental jobs like defence. Companies benefit in having military trained personnel within their organizations as well. Security training lessons can also be a part of NSC and Scouts activities to make youngsters more aware and vigilant.

* Train the trainers: Tie-ups with international intelligence agencies like Scotland Yard, FBI etc for regular training (yearly) of trainers should be worked out. If the Israeli 6 member team that came felt unsatisfied with the Chabad house work of the NSG, then we need to ask how they would have handled it. This is always done in the IT companies, why not in security.

* Catch them young: The youth in India are extremely knowledgeable and can develop cutting edge technical gadgets and ideas, if only they had a platform to display. There needs to be a clear plan to help them unleash their potential and such ideas should be quickly realized. The aforementioned local city councils can track these projects and identify potential ones for fruition. This may also help us identify ways in which we can have unobtrusive security checks at bus & railway stations and airports - something that even the western world is grappling with.

* Rotate Personnel: After some time security personnel may tend to get less vigilant, natural for being human. To avoid this, there needs to be a rotation of staff betwen airports and railway stations. 

* Constant Feedback: Constant feedback mechanisms should be created to receive information from the public about security lapses that they identify, the suggestions that they may have etc.

* Do not waste Z category security: Using the NSG people on celebrities should come at a very heavy price.  It cannot be provided to every celebrity. It is imperative that police personnel be deployed on duties to serve the public. It is appalling to note that 25% of the current police and NSG workforce is used up in protecting a few celebrities in the name of Z category security!