New Delhi, Nov 11 (Inditop.com) As the nation remembers the victims of the Mumbai terror strike last November, a top business forum says India’s existing mechanism to deal with such terror attacks was “woefully inadequate” and could shatter investor confidence.
“Unless drastic measures are taken, there can be no assurance that India will be able to prevent the next major terrorist attack and reassure the global investor about the ‘India rising story’,” says the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry2(FICCI), one of the largest business lobbies in the country.
“Their (terrorists’) immediate targets mostly are private business houses and innocent people. Motives include hurting the business sentiments and India’s international image,” FICCI says in the ‘Task Force Report on National Security and Terrorism’.
The 118-page document on India’s preparedness or the lack of it to quell terror attacks was released Monday
The task force has former bureaucrats, intelligence and defence officials and business honchos. They include MP and former FICCI president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, former FICCI president Yogendra K. Modi, FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra, Lt Gen (retd) Satish Nambiar, former air chief S. Krishnaswamy, former National Security Guards head Ved Prakash Marwah and former Intelligence Bureau director Ajit Kumar Doval.
The document, the second volume of which will be released early next year, records that the “biggest external threat emanates from ongoing terrorism supported by the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) and Pakistan based fundamentalist organisations”.
“Their objective is to cause pan-India terror, shake up global confidence in its governance and scuttle its economic rise. The terror attacks are statements against the growing gloval confidence in India as a stable, emerging economy with competitive and merit based business environment,” the report notes.
It regrets that the country “is already late in putting in place a robust response to terrorism”.
“The existing system is woefully inadequate. All the military preparedness seems nowhere close to take on the non-state actors conspiring against India,” the report states.
FICCI believes that India Inc has a role to play in helping the nation rise to the challenge.
“Indian business needs to invest in greater research and analysis and continue its efforts in building resilience in response to the terrorism. The 26/11 attacks and the rising tide of Maoist violence have definitely changed the ways in which the public and private sectors deal with extreme events.”
“The business community will take a pro-active stance and do its part to contribute to strengthening our nation’s fight against terrorism,” it adds.
Chandrasekhar, who heads the task force, underlined that the corporate sector has “long been silent spectators”.
“The report will serve to involve the corporate sector and civil society at large into this very important issue of national security and securing India,” Chandrasekhar told IANS.
“This will be our way of paying remembrance to the events of nearly one year ago and all the terror victims of that day, before and after,” Chandrasekhar said, referring to the 26/11 strike that claimed 170 lives.
Underling the corporate responsibility to fight the threat, the report says that the business community can make assessment of risk potential “in as much detail as possible”.
“The corporate sector can invest in a near foolproof security programme. It can make security audit a constant and regular feature and should be given the same importance as a financial or a management audit,” the report maintains.
