Lancers Network Limted - Your eye in India
    - By Arvind Kala, Asian Age

NEW DELHI: Yet despite the move into tackling corporate crime, the common perception in India about private detectives is sleazy lowlives living on the edge of society. Nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth. Lancers Network Limited, one of India's most highly respected detective agencies, was hired by British-based United Distillers, the world's largest spirits company, to assess the volume of bootleg Scotch being sold in the country.

Posing as customers, Lancer detectives bought 245 bottles of Scotch in Mumbai, New Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore from "reliable bootleggers". When the Scotch was analysed, 63 percent was found to be "adulterated or diluted". The discovery influenced United Distillers decision to enter India because the company felt that a market for genuine Scotch whiskies certainly existed in a county that was lapping up the "fake stuff". In fact, India's detective agencies are cashing in on poor law enforcement, which is turning the country into "a paradise for fakes". Medicines, car parts, lubricants, electronic goods, jeans or footwear - the fakes are everywhere and being snapped up. But instead of depending on a corrupt and sluggish police force, Indian companies employ private detectives to curtail this illegal trade.

Fakes are such an established part of life in the country that the Indian Music Industry, a trade association of 50 members has 35 in-house detectives on its payroll. Their only job is to track down illegal manufacturers of CDs and audio or videotapes. "That's not surprising. The market for fakes in India's music industry is US$ 100 million," said Bindu Chib, a lawyer for the association.

"Companies cannot do without detectives because they need information that only they can collect," added Vikram Singh, managing director of Lancers. At 55, his impressive military bearing is complemented by a handlebar moustache and a woollen cap perched rakishly on his head. He sits in an elegant all-blue office - blue walls, blue furniture and blue blinds. Singh seems to have made it in the big leagues. A few months ago, a United States company exploring for oil in Yemen hired him to investigate the background of a corporate president it had just hired. What he uncovered resulted in the guy being fired.

After months of digging away, Singh found out that the president had married a Jordanian airhostess - even though he already had a wife - a fact he had concealed from his new employer. Cases like that one have boosted Singh's turnover to US$500,000 a year. But then, he's at the very top of his profession.