As India moves towards its Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, technology and industrial innovation are expected to play a critical role in strengthening the country’s manufacturing and infrastructure capabilities. With solutions such as SOLIDWORKS that support product design, engineering, and simulation, Dassault Systèmes is playing a role in India’s industrial transformation. In an interview with BW Businessworld, Deepak N G, Managing Director, Dassault Systèmes India, discusses opportunities in aerospace, semiconductors and life sciences, while highlighting the need for greater research and development, automation and skill development. Excerpts:

What is SOLIDWORKS, and what is its purpose?
SOLIDWORKS is one of our applications for creating 3D data. It is used predominantly by specific industries and segments for design purposes. It is part of the broader Dassault Systèmes portfolio and is particularly popular among industrial equipment manufacturers, medical device companies and automotive component manufacturers and suppliers.

SOLIDWORKS enables component design, assembly and simulation and is relatively fast and easy to adopt. That is why we have a large number of users and customers leveraging the platform. Academia, colleges, students and startups also use SOLIDWORKS to develop and build their designs.

Looking at India’s ambition of becoming a developed economy by 2047, how do you see Dassault Systèmes supporting this vision, and in which sectors?
Three major sectors will play an important role: manufacturing, infrastructure, and life sciences.

India has set several milestones, including the ambition to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2030 and to achieve its broader development objectives by 2047. These ambitions have specific timelines, so it is equally important to track our progress over the next five-year periods.

Manufacturing currently contributes around 15 per cent of India’s GDP, but there is a significant expectation that it will grow, driven by domestic demand as well as India’s export potential. We need to maintain a continuous focus on providing the right solutions and technology so that the industry can grow and remain competitive, not only domestically but globally.

Infrastructure is primarily driven by domestic requirements. Whether it is improving traffic management, roads or connectivity, these challenges also represent opportunities to build new infrastructure. When you create infrastructure, you generate employment and create opportunities for economic growth.

More highways and better roads improve connectivity, which can attract businesses and talent. We are already seeing development expand into tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Infrastructure therefore plays a major role.

India also has an advantage because much of the infrastructure being built today incorporates the latest technology. Our airports, for example, compare very well with established airports globally in terms of technology.

The third area is life sciences. Healthcare is critical, and the government is introducing several programmes in this area. The opportunity goes beyond drug discovery. India also needs to design and manufacture medical equipment and devices locally. Supporting local design and manufacturing will be important. These sectors and the industries associated with them will therefore remain a priority for us.

Aviation, particularly defence and aerospace, is expected to grow significantly in India. How do you see the sector evolving over the next five to 10 years?
The positive development is that the budget for aerospace and defence has increased significantly. The focus is not only on procurement from outside India; there is also greater support for Indian companies to manufacture locally.

Whether it is aerospace and aircraft manufacturers, component manufacturers or the development of new types of aircraft, there will be significant investment in research and in supporting the existing fleet and capabilities.

That is why we are seeing many collaborations, with global players also establishing operations in India and becoming more comfortable manufacturing locally. India is simultaneously focusing on the quality standards required by aerospace companies.

Over the next five to 10 years, there is therefore significant potential. Many capabilities are likely to become increasingly indigenised. India has the talent, manpower and resources that can be leveraged to support this growth.

India is investing heavily in defence and aerospace, but research and development spending remains relatively low. How do you view this gap?
The figure you referred to is more of an overall measure. If we compare research and development spending with GDP, India is currently close to 0.8 per cent.

We are not yet at the level of the leading countries, but this is a journey that has already started. India has a significant advantage in terms of talent. Innovation comes from talent and from the mindset with which people approach problems. We need to provide the right platforms for people to spend time on research and development.

There may have been a time when companies primarily took existing technologies and adapted them for the Indian market. Today, I see many Indian companies looking at what new inventions and innovations they can develop to create new products. This is happening not only among large companies but also among startups.

That will not happen without investment in research and development. While India’s spending may still appear low compared with other countries, there is incremental progress. I believe that over the next five years we could move closer to 2 per cent, although moving from 0.8 per cent to 2 per cent will not be easy.

India has a young population today, but the median age is expected to rise over the next decade. Is that a concern for manufacturing and the broader economy?
Today, we have the advantage of a young population. Some countries are already struggling with demographic changes, so we cannot ignore this issue.

We need to prepare because the nature of jobs is going to change. It is not necessary that everyone will remain focused on one specific industry or segment. There will be many new opportunities.

Preparation is therefore critical. Companies are increasingly trying to capture their knowledge and know-how in a structured manner so that their dependency on individuals can be reduced. This will allow employees to spend more time on research and development and on creating something new.

For example, if a manufacturer has 100 designers working on routine assembly, simulation and testing, automation can take over some of those processes. The 100 employees can then spend more time thinking about new innovations.

That is the advantage the country can gain. We need to prepare by structuring what we have done in the past, what we are learning today and what we will learn in the future, so that this knowledge can be made available to the next generation.

Organisations will also need to create new job roles. That will attract young talent and help ensure continuity. New jobs are going to emerge.

Automation is advancing rapidly in countries such as China. Could India face a manpower challenge if it does not accelerate technology adoption?
Companies are already looking at automation so that they do not have to worry about this problem in the future. India is aware of the challenge, and we are also going to adopt technologies and automation.

Tomorrow, artificial intelligence may perform certain jobs, but the extent to which it does so and how those roles evolve are still being defined. Once these technologies mature and are widely adopted, India will also be prepared to determine what it can offer.

I do not see this as an insurmountable problem. What is important is to nurture skills around these technologies. We need to determine what young people and the future workforce should learn so that they remain relevant.

Today, our advantage is our people and resources. The talent hunt is global, and other countries will continue to seek Indian talent, but I believe India has enough resources to strengthen its own ecosystem while continuing to participate in the global talent market.

Dassault Systèmes is involved in skill development. Do you think the government is doing enough in this area?
Skill development is a continuous process. There have been several initiatives over the past five years under the Skill India programme, ranging from creating new job roles to establishing learning centres.

Companies such as ours are working with the government to create learning centres. Many other companies are also developing learning centres across different domains. Colleges and universities are no longer working in isolation. Industry and academia are increasingly collaborating to understand what companies actually need.

We have seen significant changes in this area, and these are helping young engineers understand what they want to do and receive the appropriate training, whether at the university level or later in their careers.

The government is providing the platform and highlighting areas that are important. For example, if the government announces that it wants semiconductor manufacturing and research to develop in the Northeast, that allows organisations to determine what skills need to be developed in that region.

There is also support through universities and government-funded laboratories. We cannot expect the government to do everything, but the positive development is that the government is working much more closely with industry than it used to.

Private companies are also setting up laboratories and training centres through their corporate social responsibility initiatives and business programmes. These efforts are not limited to major cities; they are also reaching tier-2 and tier-3 cities and, in some cases, rural areas.

India is developing semiconductor manufacturing capabilities, but some industry leaders say the country still lacks capabilities in chip design. How do you view this gap?
I would not describe it simply as a lack of capability. We need to look at the pace at which the market is evolving.

Why have semiconductors suddenly become so important? The requirement was not at today’s scale 15 or 20 years ago. Now, almost every piece of equipment requires chips, and volumes have increased significantly.

Manufacturing is an important first step, but we cannot stop there. Research and design are equally important. Semiconductor design is a continuous process because technologies keep improving.

This is the right time for India to invest in that area, and I see investments moving in that direction. State governments are supporting startups and incubation centres, while laboratories are bringing together technology, artificial intelligence and knowledge to develop capabilities for the sector.

India can continue strengthening its manufacturing capabilities while simultaneously building its research base. Technology is never constant, so there will always be new developments.

The opportunity extends beyond chip design to manufacturing, assembly and taking products to market. There are many areas where India can contribute, learn and strengthen both manufacturing and research.

With the rapid expansion of data centres, environmental concerns around energy and water consumption are increasing. Is this development inevitable for India?
Environmentally unfriendly activities have existed for many years. What we have done is identify alternatives and find ways to reduce their carbon footprint. We can change the material, the process or the way a system operates to make it more sustainable.

The same principle applies to data centres. At Dassault Systèmes, we are aware of the challenge and are working on ways to address it.

For example, we can help an organisation create a plane, simulate its behaviour and analyse each component before it is manufactured. The same approach can be applied to a data centre. We can build a virtual twin of a data centre, incorporating components such as racks and switches, as well as parameters such as airflow, air conditioning and water cooling.

We can also examine the resources being consumed and assess whether the facility can have a more self-sustaining power supply. All these elements can be simulated using our solutions.

This means data centres do not have to be viewed as inevitably unsustainable. We can find ways to reduce their carbon footprint through better design and planning.

We are working with partners and data centre developers who are using our solutions to build virtual representations and simulate these aspects. The objective is to avoid setting up a data centre first and only later discovering problems such as excessive heat generation, high water consumption, inadequate ventilation or dependence on carbon-intensive power.

For example, we can assess whether solar panels could help make a data centre more self-sustainable. These simulations are conducted using our 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

India will need more data centres as companies move towards cloud computing and artificial intelligence factories. There is no option but to build the required infrastructure, but we can be prepared and make it more sustainable.

Finally, which sector do you believe will be the backbone of the government’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision?
I firmly believe it will be a combination of sectors. There is no single sector that can serve as the backbone. Different sectors have to complement each other.

Transportation, mobility and infrastructure are particularly important. It is a cycle: when you build more roads, you need more cars, trucks and construction equipment. When transportation increases, businesses in those sectors benefit, and the people employed in them may subsequently purchase cars or two-wheelers.

The more economic activity you generate across these interconnected sectors, the stronger the overall economy becomes. It is a cycle in which infrastructure, mobility, manufacturing, employment and consumption reinforce one another.