ARC India

Siemens’ presentations at the recent ARC India Forum emphasized the huge impact that digitalization has had (and will continue to have) on business and industrial operations. It is now imperative for manufacturers to have a well-planned digitalization strategy – both for greenfield and brownfield projects. The company believes that manufacturers and other industrial organizations must transform their businesses into digital enterprises and, ideally, this should extend across the entire value chain. The presentations by Siemens shared a common message: “digitalization changes everything;” and this message came out clearly in the keynote address.

IBM and IIT Bombay announced that the university will join the AI Horizons Network as part of a multi-year collaboration to advance AI research.

Today’s gradually increasing oil prices have helped drive economic growth in energy-producing nations and supported renewed growth in the global operational technology (OT) industry.  However, rising energy prices have not been so good to countries such as India, which – while a major energy consumer – is neither a major energy producer or global OT supplier.  In fact, the rising fuel prices are putting additional pressure on India’s falling rupee.

India’s information technology (IT) services industry continues its growth trajectory as most of the IT services companies covered in the report exhibited above average growth.

After months of preparation, checking the itinerary, getting speaker resumes and presentations we get set for our annual India forum. Most of the presentations at ARC’s 16th India forum were on the digital transformation journey. Although the behind-the-scenes work process is the same, there is that niggling anxiety about a zillion things that range from a speaker’s flight being delayed to the mike/laser pointer not working properly. Once the delegates begin to trickle in and the sessions begin smoothly, the team heaves a collective sigh of relief. Those at the registration desk constantly check the number of attendees who come in against earlier confirmations.

As the countdown begins for ARC's 16th India Forum there is palpable excitement in the air. Our office becomes the back stage where we prepare the list of speakers, finalize the agenda, check the numbers registered, ensure the requirements at the venue are in order, etc. Besides all this, it’s a rich learning experience for all of us about new technologies and their applications, across a spectrum of industries. As the presentations come in I begin to wonder how these will capture the forum’s core theme of Digitizing and Securing Industry, Infrastructure, and Cities.

Solar power in India is a fast growing industry. The World Bank has described India as having “among the best conditions in the world to capture and use solar energy.” The country's solar installed capacity reached 20 GW in February 2018. According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), India doubled solar capacity in 2017-18 and is rapidly upscaling capacity to strive towards achieving 100 GW of solar by 2022. As part of India's ambitious solar program, the central government has set up a $350 million fund and the Yes Bank has committed to loan $5 billion to finance solar projects.

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), the think tank of the Indian government, and ABB India have signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) to support the Indian government to realize its ambitious vision of “Make in India” through advanced manufacturing technologies that incorporate the latest developments in robotics and artificial intelligence.

At the Siemens Innovation Day in Mumbai, Siemens announced the expansion of its Industrie 4.0 offerings with the launch of four MindSphere Application Centers in India (Pune, Noida, and two in Gurgaon).

Machine learning is now poised to find meaningful patterns in the messy, variable, and heretofore immeasurable activities of human beings.