Israeli know-how under consideration to guard Indian State

The Central government is treading cautiously with regard to the Israeli offer to replicate its solutions to secure Indian borders. To thwart cross-border attacks like the one in Uri and before that on the Pathankot airbase, an Israeli military expert responsible for developing solutions to secure borders says his country's techniques can be replicated to secure India's 14 borders including sea-lanes. Col (rtd) Ram Dor, a cyber security expert and former chief of Information Division of Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) says border protection involves an integrated approach coupled with a maze of initiatives starting from procurement of intelligence to putting up sensors, cameras and UAVs and linking them to a single command and control centre with direct control over the special forces. He says Tel Aviv is willing to partner India to thwart cyber threats, protect borders, create safe and smart cities and also devise homeland security technologies and solutions.

Recalling that in November 2014, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had visited one of the border outposts in Gaza, the officer says he was shown the technology used in the highly sophisticated border security system of Israel which includes high-quality long-range day cameras along with night observation systems employing third generation thermal imagers. The Israeli border fencing along West Bank, Gaza and Egypt also consists of latticed steel, topped and edged with razor wire, extending at least two metres below the ground and in some sections reaching seven metres above the ground. In certain "dark areas" where fencing is not possible, Israel uses radars and UAVs which transmit directly to the command and control centre, manned round-the-clock by Israeli military lady officers, who are in constant touch with special forces on ground.

"As a small country, Israel's existence depends on its vigilance and its ability to provide an effective, measured response to evolving domestic and foreign threats," Dor told dna.

"We started with Lebanon in the north with a simple fence with very minor sensors," Dor says. "Then we developed the second stage when we developed our border between Israel and Jordan-Sumeria and along the Gaza Strip," he adds. Following this, he says, the third layer was developed which he describes as "the most advanced one", which was with Syria. "We have three layers starting with intelligence trying to bring in an alert whenever there is an oncoming attack, going into the level that we can cover as much area as we can with all types of sensors," he says.

Despite accounting for one-tenth of one per cent of the world's population, Israel has attracted some 20% of its global private investment in cyber security. While addressing the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was punching a whopping 200 times above its weight. "So Israel is also a global cyber power. If hackers are targeting your banks, your planes, your power grids and just about everything else, Israel can offer indispensable help," he said.

But, the officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs in India are treating the Israeli offers with caution. They recall that the Home Ministry has earlier burnt its fingers in procuring 32,766 telescopic night vision devices (NVDs) for the paramilitary forces during the previous UPA government soon after 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a prestigious public sector undertaking which had bagged the contract claimed that it had developed a state-of-the-art NVD based on XD-4 technology, in technical collaboration with Prizmatech, a subsidiary of Star Defence Systems, Israel. But the NVDs failed to give the desired results at the trials conducted by the BSF in Gurgaon.