India has a huge market for Surveillance products including CCTV Cameras, IP/Network Cameras and its accessories like NVR, DVR, Surveillance Hard Disk, Coaxial Cables, Optical fibers, Media converters, CAT6 Cables etc. The consolidated CCTV Surveillance business in India is expected to reach Rs. 40 Billion by 2020.
Not so long ago the only government had access to such technologies as surveillance systems and major applications included city surveillance and traffic management. Further, some corporates started using CCTV surveillance as a tool to increase productivity. In recent times the Video surveillance market is more affordable and solution-oriented hence a lot of new market segments have come up.
1) Shift from industrial to home buyers
Today home buyers form a major chunk of the CCTV Business; this is because of the affordable products launched by various Video Surveillance Manufacturers. Most home users require products which are plug-and-play, easy to operate and view online using apps that are compatible with android as well as ios systems. India has a whopping 248,408,494 No. of households the majority of them have a decent lifestyle. Indian middle class could be next growth drivers for CCTV Surveillance Business.
2) Affordable CCTV
When it comes to high-end technologies, everyone wants to experience it, however, what today’s clients in India look for is, value for money.
Affordable does not mean low quality; it means the features which are only available in key models of manufacturers to be made available in the lower end of the product line. A small example is having an IP camera with an inbuilt mic in the retail product is a great step in this direction. It is working wonders for some end users.
3) Up to date surveillance Technology
Gone are the days when Indian market used to be flooded with cheap scrap from China. Now the Indian end users are looking for quality as well as service, hence some of the domestic players, who could offer realistic solutions, have started emerging in the field of video surveillance. This was particularly made possible by the latest technological innovations being used and incorporated by them in their products like IOT etc.
4) Towards IP/Network system
To my surprise, some of the manufacturers of Video Surveillance Equipment Manufacturers have stopped manufacturing HD Cameras (Especially HD PTZ Speed Domes) and concentrating more on IP Cameras for Video Surveillance. It must be noted that IP cameras are more and more acceptable in the Indian market compared to the AHD/HDTVI/HDAVI Video Compression technologies due to the low cost of ownership of the IP system as a whole in the long run.
5) MSME segment
The need for CCTV Video Surveillance has been created more by the industrial segment of this date, particularly due to make in India, initiative. A lot of small-scale manufacturing and service units have come up in India and they need to have CCTV Video Surveillance in their Factories, Godowns, Offices, etc and their growth leads to a direct growth in CCTV Camera market. Total number of MSMEs in India is figured to be around 36 Million (both registered as well as unregistered put together).
6) From Analog to HD or IP
As the CCTV Manufacturers come out with new technologies and advanced products even the old clients keep on upgrading to new products. For example, people who got Analog Cameras (Having CIF/2CIF/4CIF resolution) installed, five years back, can upgrade to AHD cameras from 1 Megapixel up to 4 Megapixel resolution on the same coaxial wiring. In some cases, they might like to go for a complete up-gradation to IP Camera or in some cases a hybrid system.
7) Beyond City, Urban and Suburban Market
Villages and businesses therein are looking for CCTV Surveillance. It is easy to reach out to the villages due to the better road and communication infrastructure now. Panchayats and Village Businesses are going for CCTV surveillance. Many industrial units owned by village youth are coming up in remote areas with support from Khadi Village and Industries Commission; these people are very particular about the security. Hence CCTV is a must, in recent times Millions of units have been set up in rural areas.
 8) Defense and Government
Military and PSUs have emerged as the largest user in Indian Video Surveillance Market, Millions are being spent to secure the Camps, Quarters and Borders. However, the requirements are stringent, qualification and pre-qualification requirements are not very easy to meet both for products as well as bidders. Hence only chosen ones with the best in class surveillance products have access to this market.
Maharashtra Govt. purchased 6000 Cameras, Delhi Govt. purchased 1.41 Lakh Cameras, Haryana Government has plans to install Thousands of Cameras in Gurugram and integrate more than 60,000 cameras installed across the city at various offices and Malls etc. Indian Railways is planning to install 12 Lac CCTV Surveillance Cameras at 8500 stations in India.
These stories are endless; there is a huge business potential in the government sector in CCTV surveillance business.
Major Driving forces of CCTV Business in India
- Lack of security for a common man
Time and again Government or its police are busy with political and business class, hence, they are not able to take care of the general security needs of the public in India. To get a sense of security people to have to install cameras at their homes does not matter they can afford it or not.
- Lack of efforts by the cops to gather evidence
Whenever there is a theft in any corner of India, the policemen ask the people to get some evidence, so that they can start the investigations.
- Lack of trust at work and home
Please who do not trust others, make for the majority of installations of CCTV in India.
- Price
As the prices of CCTV Video Surveillance Systems have gone down, the market has increased in size
- Defense
Indian Defense forces are a key business segment for CCTV Surveillance
- VIP homes
Security of VIP requires a great deal of surveillance system.
- Manufacturing
Manufacturing which includes SME as well big Industries is one of the key users of CCTV Surveillance in India and is ever growing.
To give a short overview of our discussion above, we can conclude that CCTV is not only restricted to surveillance at Government and Corporate level, however, but the market has also grown deeper into smaller business segments like homes, home business, medium and small-scale businesses etc. Together these smaller segments are more profitable and give a long-term business outlook top the CCTV Surveillance
About the Author
Dupesh Singh Saini, is the CEO & Founder at Sainicon Security Systems. He has done BE Electrical from NIT Durgapur. Previously he was working as Consultant at Feedbackinfra. He has worked on design, engineering, supply, installation, commissioning of important projects of national security as well as corporations across India.
