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India has finally pulled the plug.
From April 1, 2026, you can no longer sell an internet-connected CCTV camera in India unless it clears a strict government certification. And in practice, that one rule is pushing some of the biggest Chinese surveillance brands like Hikvision and Dahua out of the market.
At first glance, this looks like a simple regulatory update. But if you follow the trail, it’s actually one of the sharpest industrial resets India has attempted in electronics.
This story really began in April 2024, when the government introduced what it called “Essential Requirements” for CCTV systems. At first, it came across as just another technical formality. Every camera had to disclose where its key components came from, especially the chipset. It had to go through deep testing for vulnerabilities. Even source code could be examined to check if someone sitting thousands of kilometres away could tap into your camera feed.
Companies were given two years to comply. For a while, nothing dramatic happened because older, non-compliant inventory was still allowed to be sold. But that safety net has now been removed. As of April 2026, if your product is not certified under STQC, it simply cannot be sold.
What is STQC?
STQC stands for Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification. It’s a government body under MeitY that checks whether electronic and IT products meet India’s safety and security standards.
For CCTV cameras, STQC certification means the device has been tested for:
- Cybersecurity risks like remote access or hacking
- Source of components, especially the chip inside
- Software integrity, including firmware and data handling
If a CCTV camera doesn’t pass STQC, it cannot be legally sold in India.
And this is where things get interesting.
India’s CCTV market wasn’t small or niche to begin with. It was already worth around $3.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to touch nearly $7 billion by 2030. For years, Chinese brands dominated a big chunk of this market. Hikvision and Dahua alone had built deep distribution networks, competitive pricing, and strong installer ecosystems. At one point, Chinese players controlled roughly a third of the market.
Today, that share has almost vanished in the internet-connected segment.
Industry reports suggest that many of these Chinese products are not getting certified, especially if they rely on Chinese-origin chipsets. Without certification, they cannot legally be sold. Some companies have tried to adapt, but the transition has not been easy. Dahua’s India business, for instance, is said to have contracted sharply, and many players have been pushed into selling basic analog cameras, which are slowly becoming irrelevant in a world moving toward smart surveillance.
So what replaces them?
This is where India’s supply chain story kicks in. To survive under the new rules, brands have had to completely rethink how a CCTV camera is built. Earlier, a large part of the system, especially the System-on-Chip, would come from Chinese suppliers like HiSilicon. Now, companies are switching to Taiwanese players like Novatek and Realtek, or American firms like Ambarella. Firmware is being rewritten locally. Assembly is shifting to India.
None of this comes cheap. The cost of building a camera has gone up by around 15 - 20%. And that cost is slowly passing on to buyers, especially in the mid and premium segments.
But while costs are rising, so is concentration.
Indian brands have stepped into the vacuum aggressively. Today, they control over 80% of the market. Companies like CP Plus, Qubo, Prama, Matrix and Sparsh have expanded quickly, partly because they adapted early to the new compliance rules. CP Plus in particular has seen its market share jump from roughly 20–25% to nearly 45–50% within a short span.
This is not just about brands selling cameras. There is a deeper ecosystem shift happening underneath.
Manufacturing is getting localised, which is where companies like Dixon Technologies come in. As an electronics manufacturing services player, Dixon benefits whenever global or Indian brands decide to assemble products locally instead of importing them. Then there are enterprise-focused players like Honeywell and Bosch, which are gaining ground in high-security installations where trust and compliance matter more than price. On the infrastructure side, companies like Netweb and Kaynes are seeing interest because secure surveillance also needs reliable servers, storage, and computing layers.
At the same time, there is a slightly uncomfortable reality.
Even today, a significant portion of components used in CCTV systems still comes from outside India. So while the policy is pushing for self-reliance and security, the ecosystem is still in transition. The government is effectively forcing the market to move faster than it naturally would.
And that brings us to the bigger picture.
This is not just about CCTV cameras. It is about how India is redrawing the rules for connected devices. Surveillance sits at the intersection of security, data, and infrastructure. If a camera can be accessed remotely, it is not just a gadget. It becomes part of a country’s digital backbone.
So the government’s approach is clear. Instead of outright bans, it is using compliance as a filter. If your product cannot prove where it comes from, how it works, and whether it is secure, it does not get access to the market.
For consumers, this means slightly higher prices and fewer ultra-cheap options. For companies, it means reworking supply chains, investing in compliance, and in many cases, starting from scratch. For investors, it signals where the opportunity is shifting. Not necessarily in loud brands, but in the quieter layers like manufacturing, components, and secure infrastructure.
In a way, the plug hasn’t just been pulled. The entire wiring has been changed.
And once that happens, the market rarely goes back to how it was.
