One year after 10 young men arrived by fishing boat from Pakistan to terrorize Mumbai, many Indians are feeling less secure about their government's ability to protect them.

The date 26/11 in India -- like 9/11 in the U.S. -- has become synonymous with a national trauma. Yet India has been slow to plug holes in national security that were exposed by the attack, security analysts say, as New Delhi wrangles with state governments over how to fill massive shortfalls in maritime patrols, intelligence manpower, and police staffing and capability.

"We are just as vulnerable as before, because the deficits in security are so great," says Ajai Sahni, executive director at the Institute for Conflict Management, a New Delhi think tank.

Mumbai Residents Hire Private Guards to Feel Safer

3:45

One year after the Mumbai attacks, more and more of the city's residents are hiring private security guards to step in where they feel the police have fallen short. WSJ's Linda Blake reports.

Home Secretary Gopal Pillai, one of India's top security officials, asserts that the country's terrorism defenses have improved, but acknowledges that much more work needs to be done. "We are better prepared, yes, but can we prevent anything?" Mr. Pillai asks, pausing. "We've managed to prevent some attacks," he says.

But to some, the long coast off the city of Mumbai seems more menacing than ever. "You just know that anybody can land there and disappear," says Sonali Goculdas, a 40-year-old Mumbai resident.

Last year's attacks were an eye opener for India. While a 1993 series of bomb explosions in Mumbai killed more people, 26/11 jolted the entire country into feeling that no one was safe.

Among the targets, the Taj and Oberoi hotel complex was popular with the India's elite and foreign visitors, and a signpost of the country's growing affluence. A train station held crowds of commuters who powered an economic boom. A tucked-away Jewish center hinted at the religious diversity at Mumbai's heart.

Live television coverage magnified the tragedies and missteps. The attacks went on for about 60 hours; the attackers killed 166 people, and nine of the 10 gunmen died.

In the emotional aftermath, Home Affairs Minister P. Chidambaram announced a series of new security measures and told Parliament: "Given the nature of the threat, we cannot go back to 'business as usual.' "

Some analysts say the Indian response, however, hasn't been as dramatic as hoped.

One Year Later

A year after the attacks, see Mumbai scenes before and after, plus read the recollections of survivors.

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Remembering Mumbai's Victims

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Sanjit Das for The Wall Street Journal

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Further Reading

In the U.S. after 9/11, "There has been a pan-government effort to rethink how we do terrorism," says C. Christine Fair, a South Asia security specialist at Georgetown University in Washington. "Mumbai hasn't had that effect in India."

Mr. Pillai, the home secretary, predicts it will take five or six years to build the security infrastructure the nation needs.

In the past year, Mr. Pillai says, India has set up a national antiterrorism investigation team. A group of high-ranking officials -- including Mr. Pillai, the home minister and various heads of Indian security agencies -- meet daily for an intelligence briefing. Antiterrorism legislation has been tightened so that suspicious financial transactions can be monitored more easily and terrorism suspects can be held longer without bail.

Mr. Sahni, the Indian terrorism expert, says the central government's leverage is limited because it can allocate money but can't force states to spend it. In recent months, he says, some Indian states have been diverting police funds and manpower to fight what is viewed in those areas as a more urgent threat: armed Maoist rebels who occupy territory in several Indian states and have kidnapped police officers and hijacked trains.

Another big challenge has been recruiting and training new security personnel. India's Coast Guard aims to expand its forces threefold by the year 2022, according to a spokesman. Mr. Pillai, the home secretary, says the agency that handles domestic intelligence is hiring 2,000 additional agents. State police across the country are recruiting 80,000 people a year to fill a 300,000-officer shortfall, he says.

Yet the drive to hire security personnel has created a severe shortage of people to train them. The government has been pulling out of retirement former police, military officers and others who, Mr. Pillai says, "know how to set up an obstacle course." Less than one-third of the 20 antiterrorism police-training centers promised last year are operational.

The search for talent is likely to be an uphill struggle, says Vikram Sood, who served as chief of India's spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing. As the Indian economy has taken off, government agencies have suffered in the competition with the private sector.

"A government job is not what people aspire to," says Mr. Sood.

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Sanjit Das for The Wall Street Journal

A street vendor sells toy commandos outside the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai a year after the terror attacks.

In Mumbai, much scrutiny has focused on the local police, many of whom were called into action with bamboo canes and bolt-action rifles to combat terrorists armed with assault weapons and grenades. Sixteen police and two national guardsmen died in the attack.

The city now has 39 new bullet-proof "combat mobiles," and officers have 1,300 new semiautomatic weapons, according to Deven Bharti, additional commissioner in Mumbai Police's crime branch. Mumbai has brought in Russian and Israeli experts to train 600 officers in commando-style search and rescue skills.

"If something happens again, we can retaliate in a much better way. We can finish them off in half an hour," Mr. Bharti said.

Meanwhile, only a third of the 128 high-speed patrol boats that the government wants to patrol 4,660 miles of coastline are on the water due to procurement problems, according to Mr. Pillai. Local environmental and property regulations, he adds, have tripped up plans to add more coastal police posts.

The Indian government isn't expected to shoulder the entire security burden. The Oberoi Group, which runs the hotel complex, has increased security exponentially since the terrorist attacks, say representatives for both hotel groups. At the Oberoi-Trident, for example, the security includes sandbag barricades, metal detectors at hotel entrances and a sharpshooter with sights trained on the driveway.

Still, a few weeks ago, Ms. Goculdas, the Mumbai resident, says she sauntered into a hotel through the back door. No female guard was on duty to frisk her, she says, so a male guard let her through.