'This role is about tech in the broader sense'

Tata Group’s first chief technology officer (CTO) Gopichand Katragadda recently sat down for an interaction with Deccan Herald’s Benny Antony. Excerpts from the interview:

How would you differentiate between your roles at GE and now at the Tata Group?

In GE, the focus on technology is extremely high, so the role was much more defined in a sense. The teams were defined and the reporting structures, the organisation structure, the output of the teams, were defined both globally and locally depending on the programme. But the ability to influence the market was lower in a role which was at some distance from headquarters.

Here, being a new role, the role itself had to be defined. It’s an open canvas where there is willingness to partner and do the right things. The ability to influence the market locally is extremely high. In terms of the organisations, I think while GE is extremely technically focused, the Tata Group is focused on making a difference to the communities where we live and work. But the technology element is present in the Tatas and the community element in GE as well.

Can you throw some light on what are the projects that you are working on at the Tata Group?

My role is to look at a range of technology aspects, starting with materials to devices to systems to solutions and services, to make them technically differentiated. It is the use of emerging materials such as graphene or metal organic frameworks for long-term utilisations; in terms of devices, look at new capabilities available in the market, its applications; improve the factory production, improve the yield strength of steel, and so on.

So this role is not about IT, it is about technology in the broader sense. Having said that, our programmes are in four major areas — energy security, food security, consumer applications, and factory and fleet analytics.

We have teams working on consumer electronics and precision agriculture in Bengaluru; in factory and fleet analytics, our starting point is Jamshedpur where we are looking at data analytics for factory process improvement as a pilot; and for energy security, the centre of gravity is Pune where we do work in areas like fuel cells.

The Tata Group apparently is eyeing the eCommerce segment in a big way. How are you looking into that space and what are the developments in that space?

There are few areas where Tata Group is looking at the potential of launching businesses, and while I cannot talk about them, in all those areas we have steering committees. And in many of those where there is a technical angle, I am  part of the steering committee to ensure we ask all the tough technical questions, look at solutions which are current, retire risks as we go into product launch, and bring collaborations to the table.

What are the some of the devices that you are working on from a future perspective?

Safety is an area of initial focus. Some of the initial thoughts around wearables would be on the safety side, for example. On the energy security side, it’s fuel cells. Hydrogen is not readily available in India, so we will have to look at alternate and sustainable fuels.
In precision agriculture, again the scope is wide but we want to be able to deliver the right amount of pesticide to the right spot, and reduce its use. The larger goal is to leverage the latest in IT as well as mechanisation to improve farming yield in India, among the lowest in the world.

What have been the learnings and challenges so far at Tata Group?

If you look at energy security, it is something which I was very familiar with to start off, for eg. solar, wind, traditional coal- and gas-based turbines. In solar, we are invested in a flexible thin film solar company in Zurich and I have been part of that team ensuring that we get the best product out into the market.

The detail at which you have to go and learn new aspects of solar just provides that much amount of learning. Now as we go through the manufacturing phases, there will be challenges and addressing those challenges are all part of the learning. Agriculture opens a whole new area of learning. There is the chemistry, the food technology — none of which I have dealt with. When you bring in IT and electronics and sensors into farming, it’s my comfort zone. But if you provide a farmer with advice, and he is not willing to pay for it, what is that can be monetised is a learning.

What are some of the areas which lack technology and how can Tata Group help in those areas with technology?

If you look at renewable energy, to be able to get to grid-parity renewable energy is almost a reality. To be able to predict natural disasters is something we are able to do to some extent, but there are misses. And that’s a current need where definitely technology will be able to get us to a better spot. Future needs would include zero-carbon energy.

On food, one should ask how do I feed another two billion people who are going to come on this planet? Can I do it without technology, without genetically modified foods, without pesticides; how do I do it in a manner which is friendly to humans but inclusive of all other beautiful aspects of our planet? In entertainment, immersiveness will become a reality.

There are enormous possibilities in genomics once you understand how the nervous system works. Similarly, others like artificial intelligence and chaos theory and so on. In materials, there are morphs, metal organic framework and graphene, meta materials. Materials which are not there currently in nature, but made by humans. So you can make material which converges electromagnetic fields, rather than allow them to diverge.

Normal tendency for an electromagnetic wave is to die down as soon as it comes out. Instead, you can make it convergent using meta materials. Again, composites are well known but ceramic matrix composites and their use in hot gas paths are newer applications. The strength of newer composites are such that you can do metal replacement with the composites.