Innovation In Industry 4.0 Context

Gopichand Katragadda, Ex-Chief Technology Officer at Tata Sons and CEO, Myelin Foundry began his InnovationNXT talk on Innovation In The Context of Industry 4.0 by sharing an example of the copper statue of the Dancing Girl from the Indus Valley civilization and appreciating the style of art as well as the technology used. This process is called the Investment Casting process and is used even today.

In India, there is a history of innovation. Then, why did we miss the industrial age, digital age, and more?

Where are we headed? How can we make it happen more from sub-continent which will be good and profitable for the world as well?

He further explains India has the capability to think scientifically quoting an example of a shloka that translates into the Sin table. Why was it in this form and not just in the numeric form? Mr. Katragadda points out that this way it was easier to transmit from mouth to ear. It was also the world's first form of intellectual property protection. The good part about this was Transmission is happening in some form but it was not universally available which was the bad part.

When the Industrial age came about, it became important to break the barriers between hand, mind and the market. Knowledge of the market was and is very important. In India’s case, the market was purely the middlemen; who had no knowledge about the science behind anything. Now that the barriers have been broken and we can now produce magic from these parts of the world as well.

He went on to say, for Innovation in the Industry; everyone always looks from right to left i.e. 80% of the times we will understand the Geo-political and consumer trends, those that will drive certain needs, which are not met. Needs which can be anticipated, give a competitive advantage and then only will we anticipate which materials we can use to meet these needs.

Even the best of the best companies, only 20% of the time will they go from left to right i.e. first they have done the research and then with this research what kind of market needs can be met.

At this point today, we need the intersection of Biology, Computing, and Materials which will then produce the next age of innovation no matter which field we are in. In the next 10 years, 80% of the workforce in India will be new.

80% of the innovation comes from the market and the trends, only 20% comes from research.

Every company wants its workers to be more productive, providing an exoskeleton can help them do their current job better but also introduce soft robotics so that they can work with them. India does not want to eliminate the workers, they want them to work side by side with the robotics and therefore, the soft robotics.

Before concluding his talk, Gopichand Katragadda said that is vital to bring down the introduction of a new material to 5 years instead of 20 which is the existing time period to launch a new material. This can be done using deep learning techniques ( Deep learning is a machine learning technique that teaches computers to learn by example) and this technique should also be used by businesses for a better future.