Indian cities are growing into major engineering powerhouses: P Rajasekaran, Chief Products Officer, Bahwan CyberTek

By P Rajasekaran, Chief Products Officer, Bahwan CyberTek

India has one the largest and most well-organized engineering sectors across the globe—the industry is a key growth engine to the country’s economy. We are at the threshold of becoming the Innovation Powerhouse of the world. Capacity creation is driving demand in infrastructure, power, mining, oil and gas, refinery, steel, automotive and consumer durables sectors. With 100% FDI and de-licensing, we have the potential to attract higher investments through competitive manufacturing costs and domain and technology expertise.

Indian engineering is also becoming increasingly digital-centric. Our product cycles are shrinking and product-as-a-service is on the rise, and our GCCs are evolving into strategic business centres. Connectivity, predictive analytics, VR/AR simulation and automation leveraging AI, ML, NLP and IoT technologies are driving the shift to ‘smart-everything’—from smart grids to smart cities and smart factories. From a product engineering hub, we are poised to become a Digital Engineering and Innovation hub.

Though the pandemic has reset production and supply chains, it has made MNCs rethink their GIC/GCC strategy and accelerated the shift towards digital. Indian cities are growing into major engineering powerhouses and R&D centres, thanks to industrial automation and the sheer robustness of our ecosystem in terms of talent pool, cost and quality advantage and history of successful operations.