IT sector high on terror list
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai while confirming the terrorist outfits’ plan to hit at India’s economic well being by aiming at high-value economic targets, on Wednesday said that Software Companies, in particular, faced a “high” threat perception.
We are world leaders in software. But software industry is high on the threat list, Mr Pillai said at a conference on the Challenge of Terrorism to India’s Infrastructure and Economy in New Delhi.
As for the threat to the IT sector, Bangalore and Hyderabad are the two IT destinations that terror outfits like Lashker-e-Toiba and Huji have been eyeing for attacks. There were twin blasts in Hyderabad in August 2007 while Bangalore faced a terror shootout at its Indian Institute of Science campus in 2005 and, later, low-intensity multiple blasts in 2008.
Realizing that the two cities are on target due to the large presence of software MNCs apart from Indian colossals Infosys and Wipro, the government has been sensitizing IT companies of the threat they face and the additional security measures that must be taken to counter it.
Infosys already has CISF, a specialized central para-military force, guarding its premises in partnership with the company’s private security set-up.
Wipro, too, is being extended CISF cover, as is the Electronics City, the IT hub on Bangalore’s outskirts with 157 members that include, apart from Infosys and Wipro, Hewlett-Packard and General Electric. Incidentally, even vital oil installations like Reliance’s Jamnagar Refinery are being provided security cover by CISF.
