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The Mumbai attacks, in which terrorists struck soft targets throughout India’s financial capital, focused the world’s attention on the country’s private security officer sector.

India currently has approximately 5.5 million security guards employed by about 15,000 security companies; as an industry, this sector is now the country’s largest corporate taxpayer, according to Col. Jagat Trikha, executive director of the Central Association of Private Security Industry (CAPSI).

Previously seen as a sub-activity in the management of a facility, manned guarding has shown remarkable growth to evolve from simple guarding services to a more professional and formal set up. India is one of the fastest, emerging markets for security services. In spite of the growing market for technological solutions such as video surveillance, access control, and perimeter intrusion detection, one cannot rule out the importance of human involvement and presence in securing one's assets and facilities. Hence, the demand for manned guarding has continued to see an upward trend. Private security agencies, besides offering manned guarding services, are also adding services such as cash management solutions, vaulting services, risk assessment and audit of a facility, background checks etc. in their overall service portfolio.