Be ready for a technology-driven country, say industry leaders

“India is on the cusp of a major transformation and technology is unbelievably driving the country towards digitalisation such that the future would be glorious, though accompanied by several challenges,” said Kamal Bali, MD of Volvo India.

He was speaking during a session on ‘Make in India: The Engine of Global Growth’ organised by CII-Mysuru in the city recently. The event focused on changes in international perception and the ‘Make in India’ programme.

Focussing on the automotive industry, Bali said India, which is always known to have a potential for growth, has started performing better than before, which will lead to many emerging trends and technologies.

“There are a few challenges and missing links that come in the way of development and growth. The amount of programming that now goes into building things in the automotive industry is enormous and digitalisation is huge in both manufacturing and electronics. Though it seems unbelievable, we are actually heading towards a huge transformation,” he said.

“This also means that we are consuming about 1.4 times of what our planet can actually offer us. We are badly fiddling with the future generations leading to increased global warming. The kind of urban transformation that would happen in the next 30 years hasn’t happened even in the last 5,000 years. Hence, it is our duty to be more holistic towards the approach as it is a major responsibility on the automobile industry to work towards controlling all kinds of pollution that have already exceeded their limits,” Bali said. He urged people to take to public transport for a better tomorrow.

Ravi Raghavan, MD of BFW, spoke on machine tools and their importance in future. “Machine tools make a product a reality so it has a lot of potential as an industry. Industry 4.0, the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, is the fourth phase of industrial revolution based on fibre physical systems. It includes internet, combining productivity and networking connectivity with a huge impact on our lives. A physical machine will be connected to people through the digital world,” he said.

Guruprasad Mudlapur, MD of Bosch Automotive Electronics India, said, “Electronics will have a huge impact on our lives. Everything around us would be electronically driven. We already call automobiles like cars the third living space. We are just a little away from automated driving. The electronic industry looks at this as a positive sign, though it comes with major challenges.”

“Many vehicles are already acting as conduits for internal communication in order to be apt to a usable environment. Movement of a pedestrian to the aircraft would involve electronic connectivity. Electronification would have a great potential, especially by 2020 or 2022, as it is going to have a huge impact on the entire ecosystem,” he said.

NAL Programme Director Satish Chandra said that MSMEs are at a stage where there will be great opportunities to be harnessed but they need access to technologies, standards, processes, mentoring, accelerators and capital.

With regard to the airport in Mysuru, Chandra said, “there are possibilities for Mysuru to use its potential infrastructure for a variety of high-tech development. Manu- facturing in aerospace electronics, flight training, MRO and use of non-aeronautical revenue should be taken up to support and develop enterprise viability. Perhaps a subsidiary of the Karnataka Aerospace Technology Centre in Mysuru would be of help.”