Behind the scenes of India’s security systems industry, in the backrooms buzzing with fluorescent lights, a sense of unease is growing. Shelves once stocked with the latest IP cameras from trusted global brands are now sparsely populated. In their place, integrators are scrambling to find alternatives, often turning to manufacturers they’ve never even considered before.
The reason, at least on paper, is straightforward: a new government regulation called the Standardization Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) mandate. This initiative aims to ensure the integrity and security of all surveillance equipment sold in India.
However, in practice, the STQC has landed like a bombshell on an industry that thrives on predictability. Procurement schedules have been thrown into disarray, projects nearing completion are now stalled, and costs have skyrocketed.
In the desperate rush to comply, entire product lines have vanished from catalogues, replaced by whatever certified stock can be found. For many integrators, the STQC has become less of a technical safeguard and more of a daily struggle for survival.
Tony Alex, Co-Founder of Trident Automation Systems, a systems integrator working across multiple sectors, describes the bottleneck with a hint of frustration.
“It’s taking a lot of time for brands to get approvals,” Alex explains. “In the market, those who are comfortable with analog products are moving forward with them, but others are having to wait for new products to arrive.”
The scramble for stock
For some, the crisis began long before the April enforcement deadline. Antony Kavin Bosco, Founder of the systems integration company Gabo Enterprises, recognized the warning signs and tried to get ahead of the curve.
“Once we knew there would be no exceptions from the government, we procured around 900 to 1,000 cameras,” Bosco recalls. “Once those stocks were exhausted, it was complete chaos. Whoever had stock could set the price, and there was no other option.”
The lack of transparency from both OEMs and the government has made planning virtually impossible. “To date, we haven’t received a single piece after STQC certifications,” Bosco says. “From what we hear from OEMs, many are unable to pass the test.”
Bosco illustrates the impact with the example of a major national rollout for a financial services firm, his client. The project involved 120 branches across India. “After about 70 to 80 branches, all stocks were gone. Nothing left,” he recounts. “They’re paying us about 2,000 per unit, and I was procuring stocks at 3,600. We’re doing it at almost a 20 to 30 percent loss just to sustain the business. These are clients we’ve been with for six or seven years, so we just can’t abandon them.”
A shrinking field
Large projects, which often require a variety of dome, bullet, and specialized cameras, now face an almost absurd constraint: only certain models have been certified, and the list doesn’t cover the range needed for complex installations.
“If you look at it from a project perspective, we need some specialized cameras that aren’t STQC certified, so we can’t meet the entire project requirements,” says Sandeep Patil, Founder and Managing Director of the systems integrator Securizen.
The scarcity is forcing changes in long-standing client relationships. Integrators who once swore by premium brands are now quoting alternatives they never would have considered before. As Alex puts it, “People who have always used global companies are now moving to local brands when there’s no other choice.”
Foreign OEMs on the sidelines
Many leading international brands have yet to obtain certification, leaving integrators uncertain about how to plan or promote their products.
“It’s completely dark. We don’t know what’s going to happen and what we should be projecting,” Patil says. “Eventually, we’ve also lost orders because of the product unavailability and because some people aren’t ready to pay the price increase.”
The STQC requirement has increased costs at almost every stage. Manufacturing lines have been retooled, and import-dependent models have been sidelined. For customers, the impact is felt in the final quote.
“This STQC is also adding to the price,” Patil points out. “Instead of making the system easy and approachable, we’re making it more complex.”
In some cases, the inflated pricing originates within the channel itself. Bosco observes that distributors with pre-deadline stock withheld supply for months, only to release it later at sharply higher rates. “They started selling it for almost 50 percent more to regular buyers, and to end-clients at almost 100 percent more of MRP,” Bosco says.
Bleeding to keep the lights on
For integrators with long-standing clients, turning down work is rarely an option. “The biggest problem is if you have the team idle, the employees will switch,” Bosco says. “Even if it’s not a profit, we have to keep things running. We continue bleeding.”
This has meant taking on projects at a loss, just to maintain a presence in accounts and prevent rivals from moving in.
Alex has faced the same reality. “It’s 50-50. Some projects we can manage from distributor stock, others we can’t, and those are the ones where we’re actually losing money,” he says.
One of the more ironic outcomes of the mandate has been renewed interest in analog systems. For Alex, this is a temporary solution for some customers who can’t wait. However, Bosco notes that only certain segments are willing to consider analog.
“Most clients won’t accept analog now,” he says. “For the last two years, we pushed them to move away from analog, and now, even for temporary arrangements, they refuse. Smaller, budget-conscious customers may still welcome analog, but for most, it’s no longer an option.”
Government intent vs. market reality
The government has presented the STQC as a way to secure hardware, reduce firmware vulnerabilities, and protect against data leaks – a goal that few in the industry oppose. However, many integrators believe the policy has been applied too broadly.
“In the software industry, there’s VAPT certification for products in banking and finance,” Patil says. “People who are concerned about data leakages from IP cameras could have STQC certification as an optional thing. Make it mandatory for government, but why should the consumer segment suffer?”
A call for course correction
Integrators aren’t asking for the STQC to be scrapped, but rather for it to be refined. “There has to be some relaxation for STQC certification, so that other people can also participate,” Patil says. “Make it mandatory for government projects, but don’t restrict the consumer and private segments. Otherwise, you’re just creating more chaos.”
For now, the industry is living day-to-day, stock-to-stock, order-to-order. “Across the industry, manufacturers are still holding back and waiting before ramping up production,” Bosco says. “They’re cautious, not pushing new products into the market until STQC approvals are cleared. But in sectors that can’t wait, they’re going ahead with whichever models are available. Others are stuck waiting for things to come.”
For India’s security systems integrators, the STQC’s well-intentioned push for quality assurance has become something far more complicated: a test of endurance in a market where trust, supply, and survival are in constant negotiation.