What the future holds for engineering in India?

The rapid advancement of technology has been a wonderful development in engineering. The world is growing increasingly technologically advanced and dependent upon it, and India in particular is making significant investments in IT. India currently has the highest number of engineers graduating. The field's future is also examined, with cross-specialization and practical skills becoming more crucial.

We spoke to Capgemini Engineering to understand what are the future prospects of engineering in India, and how they are supporting local businesses, what are current R&D trends etc. Excerpts from an interview with Chandra Reddy, Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Capgemini Engineering:

DQ: What the future holds for engineering in India?

Chandra: Despite the global pandemic, ER&D global spending worldwide has stayed strong and is expected to grow at a 9% CAGR to achieve $1.9B by 2023. 50% of this growth will be driven by Digital Engineering according to NASSCOM studies.  

In this growth journey, India has emerged as a global powerhouse for ER&D - evolved from providing Engineering support to now end-to-end ownership model. Indian ER&D market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12-13% and reach $63B by 2025 from $31B in 2019. 

India's ER&D landscape comprises Global Capability Centers (GCCs), Engineering Service Providers (ESPs), Start-ups, and India-based manufacturing companies. India has seen a 20% growth rate since 2015 and today India supports 1,430+ GCC across verticals that employ 1.3 M people. 48 out of the top 50 Engineering R&D spenders have their centres in India. Twelve of the top 50 ESPs are headquartered in India and 44 of the top 50 ESPs have their ER&D operations in India. India has the third-largest ecosystem globally for start-ups, with close to 11,000-12,500 tech start-ups incepted between 2015 and 2020. 

Engineering in India is driven by the core R&D intensive sectors like Automotive, Industrial, Energy, Railways, Utilities, Aeronautics and Life Sciences, while strongly supported by pivotal industries in Communications, Semiconductors and the Internet.  All industries today are transforming, and software and digital technologies are driving this change. 

Capgemini Engineering in India is the powerhouse of Engineering for Capgemini Group. It has helped the Group to be positioned as the leader of the ER&D market and at the top of the value chain.  

We are spread across eight cities in India, leveraging talent from all parts of the country and delivering solutions and services to our global clients from India. We are strategic partners to our clients, and over the years, we have built long-term relationships with them over a decade. At Capgemini Engineering, we address the diversity of engineering skills at scale and drive innovation for our clients from India. With the expertise and capabilities of Capgemini in India, we drive digital transformation and build operations at scale for our clients. 

India today has become the go-to country for engineering services for the global customer base. This drive has fueled growth for the captive and domestic engineering market, with many opportunities to engage. We are firmly positioned to address this emerging business need in India. 

We have built on Capgemini’s reputation by growing business in the engineering space & attract a large and diverse talent base in India for engineering to software.

DQ: How does it support local businesses? Any other programmes or services it provides?

Chandra: Today, India has become an important market and source of talent for engineering services for the global customer base. This has fueled growth for the captive and domestic engineering market, and we are firmly positioned to address this emerging business need in India.

The engineering sector in India offers a comparative advantage in terms of manufacturing, technology, and innovation. 

Our go-to-market is very industry-focused, and through the industry offerings, we address specific needs of the clients in each focus industry, such as Automotive, Lifesciences, Energy & Utilities, Aerospace, etc. 

To enable our client’s transformation into Intelligent Industry, our offerings leverage the power of digital technologies to make Products, Operations, and Services intelligent. The Software Offerings address the challenges of softwarization while bringing in strong core engineering and industry domain expertise. 

We have a big focus on sustainability. Companies worldwide are investing heavily in reducing their environmental impacts and seeking to be more resource efficient. Capgemini boldly aims to help its clients limit CO2 emissions and contribute to their sustainability agenda. For Capgemini Engineering, sustainability is at the core of all the services we deliver. We have integrated the sustainability dimension in all our offerings - from the design of sustainable products and operations to services.

DQ: What are the trends in India’s R&D industry?

Chandra: There is a strong drive towards Intelligent Industry, which aims to bring Intelligence to everything we connect physically. It means Intelligent Products, Intelligent Operations, and Intelligent Services and Support. 

In India, we see a tremendous opportunity to transform the business of our customers and partners driven by digital, software, and connectivity.

Our technology focus is driven by the fact that all Core Engineering products and services are transforming today. This transformation is driven by 5G, Analytics & AI, IoT & Edge Compute, and Smart Factories. Cloud-Native Products & Services and Software Frameworks focus on delivery excellence, i.e. on time, cost and quality. This is one of the fundamental to building a long-term trusted relationship with our client.  

Becoming a trusted adviser; moving from being just a service delivery partner to helping and guiding our clients on a broad base to help them do better in the market is key

It is important to build a strong engagement with our talent because, for ER&D services, it is the people and talent that our clients see and value. 

DQ: What cues India can take from China in this area? Can you throw some light on its history?

Chandra: According to the recent report India Industry 4.0 Adoption: A Case to Mature Manufacturing Digitalization by 2025 | NASSCOM, leading economies like the US, China, and Germany who started early and are ready to realize the benefits of a strong foundation in Industry 4.0. India as an emerging economy has lately been focusing on building industry and academia partnerships to innovate and take advantage of several government incentives. Indian manufacturing is witnessing a push to adopt digital technologies to achieve the target of 25% contribution to GDP by FY26 from 16.9 at present. 

Indian manufacturing sectors have collectively invested ~$12 Bn in technology and have attracted nearly ~$11 Bn worth of FDI to enhance operational efficiencies and global competitiveness according to the report.  Technology in manufacturing has evolved from Industry 1.0 – Mass Production for Global Markets – to Industry 4.0 – “Customized” Mass Production or Intelligent production using connected, cyber-physical systems including IoT, cloud technology and big data. 

Capgemini Engineering in India is aligning to this evolution by the three Intelligent Industry offerings to enable data-driven business transformation, support automotive manufacturers, and allow the wider industry to progress on its roadmap. We are driving transformation in autonomous driving efficiently while also helping to enable biopharma companies improve drug discovery and clinical trials. We are also driving the 5G and edge revolution in the telecommunication space from engineering connectivity products to innovating on new use cases that leverage data and connectivity. 

Some of our key focus areas include:

Digital Engineering and Manufacturing offerings enable our client’s business through the adoption of key digital technologies such as connectivity, IIoT, Cloud, analytics and AI, AR/VR from design to manufacturing to operations and support. The key focus areas include 5G solutions for Industries, Digital continuity based on PLM, digital twin, virtual engineering and digital transformation of the Industrial Operations to Industry 4.0 

Software Product Engineering enables our clients to capture new markets and business models by the development of disruptive software products and services leveraging cloud, micro-services, serverless architectures – engineering for best-in-class SaaS and cloud-native platforms.  We also help optimizing the old and transform to the new while managing in-market software products and enabling their modernization

Research & Innovation: Our 6 customized Research and Innovation programs across Future of Mobility, Future of Networks and Computing, Future of Healthcare, Future of Industry, Future of Engineering and Applied AI are business accelerators that assist clients with high-intensity R&D that showcase the power of incremental and disruptive technologies through pioneering engagements built around recognizable assets.