National General Secretary of BJP Ram Madhav on Tuesday urged the business community to leverage the myriad cross-border opportunities that were available in areas where security was not a major issue.

Industry needed to adopt an 'ocean-centric' approach and tap the investment prospects in the Indian Ocean region and bring in technology for the prosperity of the region, Madhav said in his valedictory address of the two-day 'Smart Border Management 2018' conference organised by FICCI.

He added that the Indian Ocean region was a 2 billion-strong market and advised businesses to look at North-East India not just as a gateway to trading with the country???s eastern neighbours but to make the region as a manufacturing hub for doing business with the littoral states.

He said people living on the borders were important security agents and called for their inclusion in any strategy to secure the country from infiltration. They have to be provided with electricity, roads, means of communication and this aspect has to be integrated in overall border management, he added.

Sandip Somany, President-Elect, FICCI, said that there was tremendous scope for big data and predictive analytics for coastal security management.

He suggested the need to explore data-driven intelligent systems to harness R&D potential at public-funded R&D labs and transfer of technology with industry partners. 

He stressed the need for enhancing communication and surveillance systems at border areas.

Better technologies and means must be employed to encrypt data during communication from command centre to border posts and vice versa. Industry, he said, would be happy to partner with the government in exploring possible solutions to address these challenges, he said.