Staff Reporter / New Delhi
In a bid to strengthen the state’s security mechanism, the UK India Business Council will work in collaboration with the government of Uttar Pradesh to modernise and upgrade the security forces involving use of cutting-edge technology, such as drones and predictive policing.
A roundtable conference as a follow up of the event that took place on April 22 was held on Tuesday in which the State Government of UP outlined its Homeland Security (HLS) requirements and also understood conditions under which UK firms look to invest in India.
The roundtable was attended by Awanish K Awasthi ACS (Home), Navneet Seghal, ACS (MSME), Mukul Goel,DGP, UP, Sandeep Salunke, DG Technical Services, BK Maurya, ADG Logistics, Dominic Gillan UK Defence and Security Exports (Part of DIT), Vibhore Singh, Senior Trade Advisor – Department for International Trade, Government of the United Kingdom and Cmd Bunty Sethi, Director Aerospace & Defence (UKIBC).
Showcasing Uttar Pradesh’s growing potential and facilities being provided to investors, Awanish Awasthi, additional Chief Secretary (Home), highlighted the availability of land, labour, electricity, infrastructure, skilled manpower and proactive steps taken by the government to transform the state into an investor-friendly destination.
Awasthi further mentioned the ease of doing business rating in which Uttar Pradesh now ranks the second best state in India.
Dominic Gillan asserted that the UK, with its huge technology advantage, was the world’s second-largest defence exporter and also showed UK’s eagerness to do more business with Uttar Pradesh by way of trade as well as investment relationship.
Additional chief secretary (MSME and Export Promotion) Navneet Sehgal mentioned about the significant steps taken by the UP government in the span of last 4 years to develop the state’s political and business environment for the benefit of investors.
As UK has extensive expertise in areas such as surveillance and AI-facial recognition softwares, the UK India Business Council will strengthen state’s security forces by investing in six areas : Cyber Security, Drone/Anti Drone Surveillance System, Body Worn Cameras/ Integrated Data Management System, Surveillance cameras for projects such as Smart City, Readymade DNA Testing (Forensic Technology) and AI, Big Data Analytics.
On the occasion, ACS MSME, Navneet Sehgal also presented one of the products under the state’s flagship scheme of one district-one product (ODOP) to the members of UKIBC.