The security of security

Diwan Rahul Nanda can take credit for a lot of firsts (and he does): For organising and corporatising the security sector in India; for helping shed the laathi-bearing ‘watchman’ image for a smarter, cosmopolitan look; for the first public limited security company in India; and for easily being the largest security firm in the country, towering over hundreds of other metoos and pretenders.

Nanda, to be sure, isn’t only in the business of security guards. Two years ago, he added Topsline, an emergency response service, to his bouquet of services. Topsline is available in all metros and promises to reach the caller within nine minutes of placing the call. Boasts Nanda: “Today we have 700,000 members, we’ve saved 9,000 lives, and we’re reaching our callers within 6.42 minutes as opposed to the promised nine.”

Nanda also has Tailormade Management (housekeeping, frontend and back-end management) and Tops Investigations (which looks into a plethora of investigations, from marital infidelity to corporate background checks). In addition, Tops has just invested Rs 12 crore in creating its very own chain of training academies. The first one is to open in Karjat (on the outskirts of Mumbai) on 40 acres of land, and will sport international, world-class standards and facilities, with kennels, obstacle courses, swimming pools, and the works.

Nanda also has his own manufacturing unit, which makes uniforms for all 55,000 of his employees; the company also manufactures uniforms for personnel of other companies, including airlines like Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines.

He’s got more coming up. In a bid to get fully integrated and become a full-service security provider, the TOPSGRUP is close to acquiring a Rs 30-crore company that manufactures and distributes electronic security and access systems. “The one thing the world will always need is security,” quips Nanda. And that should keep him and his shareholders secure.

— Deepti Khanna Bose