After Lebanon pager blasts, Modi government to restrict use of China-made CCTVs, push for local vendors: Report

In light of the explosions in Lebanon, the Indian government seems to have expedited the process of pushing through the restrictions on the use of foreign, especially Chinese-made, surveillance equipment in the country.

A report by the Economic Times stated that the government is set to accelerate the implementation of guidelines that will favour the local vendors in the surveillance industry.

While gazette notifications were issued on the matter back in March and April, in the wake of the Lebanon threats, the government has sharpened its focus on security.

"The government's policy on surveillance cameras is likely to come into effect on October 8, which will effectively eliminate Chinese players from the market, benefiting Indian companies," a source told ET.

Centre wants the equipment being used to be made at 'trusted locations', which are areas where it has visibility on the entire manufacturing chain and is convinced that there are no backdoors in the equipment that could leak or take data out.

Varun Gupta, research analyst at Counterpoint Research, told ET, "Currently, CP Plus, Hikvision and Dahua control more than 60 per cent of the market in India and they will have to step up their efforts in improving the localization content in their surveillance portfolio and double down on R&D.."

CP Plus, which is an Indian company, will likely have no issues with the change. However, Hikvision and Dahua, which are Chinese, are likely to experience a pseudo-ban and a drop in market share.

In November 2022, the United States government, through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), banned the sale of equipment from Hikvision and Dahua due to "unacceptable risks to national security".

The government had already been pushing to avoid Chinese surveillance equipment, preferring to tender the 7-10x more expensive equipment from other vendors, such as Bosch.

"The emphasis on CCTVs predates the pager explosions," another person told ET, "It's less about explosions and more about the potential for data leakage from CCTV cameras, which are installed in sensitive locations and can be used to track people's movements."

The new orders from the government lay the foundation for changes in procurement of surveillance systems in India, and place a strong emphasis on promoting domestic products in the surveillance market.