"Through Making-in-India, CP PLUS stands committed towards creating an India that is not just secure but also self-reliant and growing."

In a chat with VARINDIA, Aditya Khemka, Managing Director, CP PLUS (Aditya Group), discusses about business goals, key priorities of the company, service support, attaining self-reliance with Make-in-India initiative and much more

What are the business goals and key priorities of CP Plus in India for 2022-2023?
Being the first and the largest Indian manufacturer in the entire security and surveillance industry, the paramount purpose driving us since the beginning has always been the need to create a safer and smarter future. By spreading security to every corner of the country, we aim to make products and solutions more accessible and empower the public with safety and dependability. Ours is a brand that stays with you for life and it is through enriching your life with peace and reliability that we have succeeded in prevailing across boundaries and industries, helping people to thrive in their own direction.

The foundation of our commitment stands on our resolution to remain a quality-driven, value-for-money, made-in-India brand that never fails to more than meet the expectations of our customers and stakeholders. Even as their needs change with time, we have been and will continue to design and develop solutions within India that are more relevant. Consequently, it is the result of this determination towards providing security with accountability that makes us the most trusted brand in the country, simply on the strength of being the people’s brand, considering that the certainty of security comes right after their basic rights.

As partner engagement programs are a big part of CP Plus’s growth strategy, what are the key measures you have undertaken for enhancing service support?
Being a well-trusted brand with quite a deep understanding and know-how of the security and surveillance needs of the rapidly changing time, our brand stands unrivalled when it comes to conceptualising customised and best-suited solutions for the security troubles of the world. Being a brand that puts in an effort to understand the needs of the end-user, we have steadily extended our presence to every corner of the country and have ensured that our customers can reach us no matter where they are. Through creating new capacities, establishing new capabilities, and constantly expanding our portfolio, we are committed towards strengthening our reach and ameliorating the reliability we provide.
Considering that people from every walk of life require a reliable sense of security and by understanding the rapidly changing as well as challenging needs of the time, we come up with unparalleled, high-performing products that are affordable and have been designed for sustainable use. Our innovation capabilities and the latest technologies coupled with value-added services show the difference. With our in-house production under the make-in-India initiative, we aim to generate more and more employment and help India in becoming truly self-reliant, while, at the same time, continuously organizing training programs across the country. Our continuing and dedicated investments towards crafting and producing even more proficient solutions as well as towards constantly upgrading customer service are also the reason behind our rapidly rising market share. We will always remain dedicated towards enabling customers in gaining more value and effectively securing their property.

India is unleashing huge potential in the business world under the Make-in-India initiative, how is your organization adopting the initiative to reach self-reliance?
Since its very beginning, CP PLUS has been able to put itself at the forefront of the industry by introducing affordable solutions and a reliable sense of security to the general public and creating awareness about enhancing public safety. When the Make-in-India initiative was launched, we recognized the opportunity it brought and began producing surveillance devices locally in India in our manufacturing facility in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh five years ago. And since then, we have enhanced our manufacturing capabilities to reach the plant's maximum production capacity of one million units per month.

Now to meet the growing demand, we have put up another manufacturing unit in Kadapa District, Andhra Pradesh. With the production commencing in Q3, 2022-23, this new facility will have three times the production capability vis-à-vis the existing capacity i.e. three million surveillance units per month, which will make it the world’s largest manufacturing unit for surveillance products, outside China and third largest in the entire world when including China.

Backed by our R&D proficiency, we have plans in action to further augment our capabilities and become many times larger than the current size to produce six million units per month in near future to make our brand more and more Atmanirbhar in order to accomplish our PM’s dream and to make India truly self-reliant.

In addition, we have 10 acres of additional land for which we have firm plans to develop facilities for Backward Integration in the CCTV domain. CCTV & Recorders’ components like Housing, Cables, and Adapters among others are placed in the first phase of manufacturing which will lead to an actual increase in Local Content in manufacturing and go another mile in the localization and indigenization process of CCTV manufacturing in India!

Manufacturing for other domestic and international brands, CP Plus has also become the largest Indian OEM and ODM as well, giving strong competition to Chinese companies and reaching the leading spot in the entire surveillance industry.

Currently, we are also in talks with the Government of India to introduce the PLI scheme for the surveillance industry and also about amendments to the Public Safety Act to further improve Electronics Security for India and its public.

How is the IT Industry shaping the future of India?
The overall electronic security market has been growing at a steady pace with a CAGR of around 19-20%. 2022 witnessed similar growth in line with the industry growth of around 20%.

In the last few years, security and safety have become a key concern globally if not a necessity for people from all walks of life. This is highly likely to be reinforced in the next couple of years as the industry is expected to continue to grow at a steady CAGR of 19-20%. At the moment, growth in the electronic security equipment industry is being driven directly by the critical need to safeguard people, resources, and infrastructure amid the escalating security concerns and the convergence of IT and mobile technology with security systems.

Rapid installation of access control systems across defense and commercial sectors along with the rising interest of government entities in security solutions have also been integral in boosting the market growth. Many state governments in India are also playing a vital role by adopting video surveillance equipment to improve security and safety. Many states have incorporated advanced video surveillance solutions in their cities in 2022. For example, the Telangana Government is currently focusing on improving surveillance on the streets to upgrade Hyderabad’s safety, which is already the most surveilled city in the world.

In India, with the help of the rising awareness among the public about the intrinsic value of a reliable security system, and a significant increase in spending by the consumer vertical is also seeing big growth. This is further aided by easier and more affordable access to bandwidth.

The range of consumer products is also expanding every range from Wi-Fi cameras and sensors to IoT devices, video doorbells, and floodlit cameras.
With affluent households poised to explode this segment will be a key driver in the near future.

As the market and technologies evolve, how do you transform your organization for the changing needs of time while also minimizing imports?
Over the past decade, we have brought the surveillance industry in India up to the stage where our brand plays an instrumental role in essentially redefining the industry itself. By leaving no stone unturned when introducing newer and better technologies to the Indian market as soon as they are developed, we stand committed to taking India to a future of security.

The determination to take effective and dependable surveillance to every corner of the country is what differentiates CP PLUS from other brands. To reinforce this dedication, we have set up our presence in every major town and city of every state across India, and we are now eager to help turn rural areas into intelligent, urban living spaces with the security you can depend on. The fame and acknowledgment that our brand has gathered over the years have resulted from the repeated efforts made to rapidly improve the state of the surveillance industry in India.

We aim to contribute not just by selling effective solutions and products for the growth of GDP but also by creating awareness about smart security while, at the same time, generating more employment opportunities at the backend. And then, further backward integration will create further job opportunities for which we are already organizing training programs to educate the masses.

This will also help reduce India’s dependence on imports of parts and peripherals to indigenize the production process further and manufacture everything locally.

Finally, what are the mega-trends you are expecting, as India is on the path of digitization?
With the spreading awareness about revolutionary solutions such as advanced cameras, floodlight cameras, IoT Cloud-based Wi-Fi Video Doorbell, and Sensors integrated with AI-based human filtering that are being produced now, people from every walk of life have started to realize that the dependability of an efficient security system stands unmatched. This is another reason why the security and surveillance industry has been on an upward arc throughout. Keeping up with such trends is the advent of Facial recognition, which uses AI & Machine Learning, and has worked wonders in the increasing use of security systems.

Moreover, in today’s day and age, security and surveillance are not just about installing a CCTV but have gone beyond the traditional “physical security” and have more frontiers like Artificial Intelligence, Smart Analytics, Cloud-Computing, and Internet-of-Things, Access Control among so many others. And with this rapid acceleration in technology, each of these will play a significant role as a growth driver for enhanced security.