Ringside View of IISSM, 2002

          Organising an International Seminar of the type held under the auspices of the IISSM is both a pleasure and privilege.  It is a daunting task as well. But with cooperation from all and ‘tricks’ of the Old Man above, the event went off well, rather to the satisfaction of all concerned.  A formal report on this Seminar could be found elsewhere in this Newsletter.  A true picture of the agony and ecstasy is, however, possible only from a ringside view.  

          Almost at the eleventh hour, on December 16, to be precise, we had the stunning news of some of the scheduled eminent speakers not being able to come due to exigencies of the situation.  As it is, some of our regular “star performers” were missing this year.   But then things do happen when they are to happen.  What a revelation was Mr. Prashant Shah of Logistics Solutions, USA, who made a presentation on ‘Biometric Solutions to Terrorist Threats’.  Mr. Raj Lakha of Safety Solutions (UK) Limited was another hit in the same manner with his presentation on ‘Isomorphic Learning From Europe: Business Strategies To Counter Commercial Terrorism and Human-made Disaster’.    Col. A.S. Bedi, Jet Airways India Limited, made aviation security look so simple.  Prof. S.V. Raghavan of I.I.T., Chennai, was as smooth as IT operations are.  Then from among the participants we had the occasion to witness brilliant interventions by Dr. Gopalji Malviya of the University of Madras, Lt. Col. M. Sudarshan of Satyam Computers, Captain S.B. Tyagi of Gas Authority of India Limited, Mr. L.K. Asthana, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, and last but not the least by Major General Raj Kaushal, COS, India.  Mr. S.J. Grogan, USA, pulled a rat out of the hat by displaying a recent innovation in the shape of a self-generating power torch.   Naming the few is, however, not to detract any thing from the active and enthusiastic participation from the delegates, many amongst whom lamented why the IISSM could not organize such Seminars more frequently.  Among other stalwarts and security experts present and making visible impact on the proceedings of the Seminar were: Mr. R. Swaminathan (formerly from Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India), Mr. A.V. Venkatachalam IPS (Retd.), Director General of Police, Kerala, and Mr. C.V. Narasimhan, IPS (Retd.), former Director, Central Bureau of Investigation, Government of India, who also happens to be the first IPS officer of the country in the sense he was the first of the first batch of IPS officers in India.  Incidentally, Mr. Narasimhan is also a batchmate of the IISSM Chairman, Mr. K.N. Prasad. 

          All work and no play is not IISSM’s philosophy.  The banquet in the evening of December 18, therefore, gave participants and spouses an opportunity to ‘feel light’ and enjoy a marvellous Bharatnatyam recital by the well-known danseuse Miss Hema Sripall.  Then all hell virtually broke loose when the light music session followed after the dinner.  It was, however, IISSM’s good luck that all this did not affect presence in the next morning’s business session which had to start at 0900 hrs. in the mornings to tackle the problem of “what we learnt from the 9/11 incident”. 

          Then what about the excitement generated over the Annual Awards!  The competition was keen and so it was a tough ask for the Awards Committee.  Finally, the Chairman of the IISSM had to intervene before the names of the winners could be announced.  Details can be seen elsewhere in the Newsletter. 

          The IISSM will fail in its duty if we were not to formally mention about the enthusiastic support received from Mr. S. Sripall, IPS  (Retd.), former Director General of Police of Tamilnadu.  He was indeed the pillar of strength for the IISSM at Chennai. 

Best regards,

(D.C.Nath) IPS (Retd.)
Former Special Director, IB (Govt. of India)
Executive President & CEO, IISSM