...TechTalk features lectures by distinguished Technologists'...

TechTalk - 3:    Addresses delivered by Shri. Onkar S. Kanwar, Dr. R. A. Mashelkar and Shri. R. R. Shah,

                        as part of the 19^th National Conference on In-house R & D in Industry

TechTalk - 2: Experience in Managing Technology in HMT by Dr. S. M. Patil

TechTalk - 1: Experience in Managing Technology in ACC by Dr. S. Ganguly

Addresses delivered by Shri. Onkar S. Kanwar, Dr. R. A. Mashelkar and Shri. R. R. Shah

as part of the 19th National Conference on In-house R & D in Industry

21-22 November 2005

Read: Abstract-3

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Abstract-3

This TechTalk comprises the addresses delivered by Shri. Onkar S. Kanwar, Dr. R. A. Mashelkar and Shri. R. R. Shah, as part of the 19th National Conference on In-house R & D in Industry. Some salient points in their speeches are highlighted below:

Address by Shri Onkar S. Kanwar, President, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)

• India is now, one of the preferred locations for carrying out R & D.

• Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, President of India: “For the evolution of a knowledge hub, connectivity through four grids – education, healthcare, e-governance, and providing urban facilities in rural areas are essential.”

• Importance of in-house R & D efforts for survival of the industry.

• Issues on Managing Technology for Competitive Advantage:

  • New product, process, and distribution of technologies provide powerful levers for creating value for businesses, whose future is technology driven.

  • Example of Telecom services – how it is getting commoditized with expanding capacity and lower complexity, leading to cheap and virtually limitless access.

  • Technology is omnipresent in all business of today, and futuristic – computer networks, communications, geomatics, life sciences, aerospace, advanced materials, tissue engineering, robotics and automation, are evolving at a rapid pace.

  • Today, strategic cycles are being talked about in ‘web years’, which is about three months…will shrink further in the coming time.

  • Technology led businesses involve a profile of young and creative people working in an entrepreneurial mode.

Inaugural address by Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, Secretary, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research

• Sir John Major, former Prime Minister of the UK: “In 17th century, 40 % of the global GDP came from India. I am not surprised about the resurgence of India.”

• 50 % of GDP of OECD countries today is based on production, distribution and valourisation of knowledge, and it is expected to rise to 70 % - 75 % within the next 15 to 20 years…this is where our greatest competitive advantage lies.

• Four critical factors in building a strong national innovation system:

  1. Human resource.

  2. Competence and capacity of public research institutions.

  3. Intellectual property – its generation and protection.

  4. Competition policy that the Government lays out.

• Global shift that is taking place in terms of innovation and more towards Asia – Pacific.

• 1 % of the (Indian) population carries 90 % of the intellectual energy. When we lose that 1 % we lose a lot, so getting these people back whom we have lost, is also critical, when we talk about human capital.

• As enterprises actually develop their own capacities, Government should frame suitable policies, provide incentives, make investments as well as forge public – private partnerships.

• Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative.

• We need to use our own IQ to create our own IP.

• There is a strong proposal on creating a Global Technological Acquisition Fund, because technology is not only developed in-house, but you have to acquire technology from outside, and there are companies which are there to be picked up, who are strong in technology.

Valedictory address by Shri R. R. Shah, Member Secretary, Planning Commission, New Delhi

• In India, there has been a transition from a capitalist economy to a knowledge-based economy, particularly in the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century.

• In the case of knowledge-based economy, knowledge increases with sharing…cooperation is going to be the key, and the more you enlarge the cooperation between the different segments of the society, the greater would be the synergies.

• The 19th and 20th centuries were geared…to understand and conquer various forces of nature and to use them for better standards of living. In the 21st century, you would see the shift from the macro cause to the micro cause. You would look at what is the infinite, the minor, the small, the atoms, the nano-technology.

• ‘Brand India’ – the third dimension of creating innovative processes, where the brand image of India comes up.

• Interface between scientific community and industry.

• If innovation has to drive Indian industry and if intellectual property creation is going to be the key, then we really need to look at, as to what are going to be the drivers for this effort in the coming five years.

• ‘Dimensional hypothesis’ of the 11th plan.

Experience in Managing Technology in HMT

(Under Distinguished Technologists Lecture Series of DSIR)

Lecture at I. I. Sc. Bangalore on 21st September 1996

by

Dr. S. M. Patil

Former Chairman and Managing Director

Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd.

Read: Abstract-2

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Abstract-2

The lecture on “Experience in Managing Technology in HMT” was delivered by Dr. S. M. Patil, former Chairman and Managing Director of HMT, as part of the Distinguished Technologists Lecture Series of DSIR. The talk was organized by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India, New Delhi; in association with the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad; and held at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on 21st September, 1996.

The areas that Dr. Patil touches upon in this lecture are briefly highlighted below:

• Technology – an applied science and an aid to convert basic science and research into practical end-use products and processes.

• Crucial and vital role of science and technology in the development of the economy of any nation.

• Necessity for constant awareness of technology development in other countries, as well as the will and ability to adapt and improve on them to meet local conditions and requirements.

• Example of successful technology policy adopted by Japan.

• Technology in India:

  • Jawaharlal Nehru’s impetus to science and research activities.

  • Start of a chain of Research & Development centres, now under the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR).

  • Start of post-graduate courses in advanced science and engineering by Indian Universities.

  • Undertaking of research by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur.

  • India’s Technology Policy.

  • Technology Plan.

  • Formation of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

  • Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) – some tasks.

• Two main courses open to developing countries like India, to build a technological base for their industries.

• Some forms of technical collaboration adopted by Indian industry:

  • Joint ventures

  • Turnkey collaborations

  • Licence collaborations

  • Technology against bulk orders

  • Limited arrangements for acquiring technology

  • Reverse engineering

• Management and Development of  Technology in HMT

  • History of formation of Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd. (HMT Ltd.)

  • First Phase (1954 -1956)

  • Second Phase (1956 – 1964)

  • Third Phase (1964 -1978)

  • 1966 -1969: Problems due to drought and famine, military threat from Pakistan, severe recession, hefty devaluation of the Rupee, postponement of the IVth Five Year Plan, increase in capacity of HMT to produce machine tools but with decrease in orders – how these problems were tackled.

• HMT’s growth into a leading machine tool company in India.

  • Growth in exports – reason.

  • Introduction of the NC (numerically controlled) and CNC (computer numerically controlled) machine tools.

  • By 1978: HMT becomes the largest manufacturer of machine tools in India and is recognized as one of the renowned manufacturers of machine tools in the world.

• Dr. Patil’s vision and objectives; and the strategies that were followed to achieve these objectives.

  • Growth pattern of other companies in the machine tool industry.

  • Production of NC and CNC machines – 1970’s to 1990’s.

• Stagnation in technology development – reasons.

• Biggest victim of protected economy in India – technology development.

• One major defect in the system which prevents the growth of indigenous technology – lack of appropriate linkages between development of technologies in the Research Laboratories and Universities on the one hand, and their application in industry on the other.

• The Central Manufacturing Technology Institute - history of formation and activities.

• Other institutions and organizations which are contributing significantly to the research and development of relevant and state-of –the-art technologies.

• Overview of technological development in manufacturing engineering in the developed countries:

  • Computer Aided Manufacturing System (CAM)

  • Flexible Machining System (FMS)

  • Computer Control and Inspection of Machine Tools

  • Use of Robots

  • Digital Factory

  • Cellular Manufacturing

• Suggestions for decreasing the technology gap between India and the developed world, in the area of manufacturing engineering and machine tool technology. 

“Experience in Managing Technology in ACC”

(Under Distinguished Technologists Lecture Series of DSIR)

Lecture at I. I. T. Madras on 19th February 1999

by

Dr. S. Ganguly

Vice Chairman,

ACC (Associated Cement Companies) and Associated Group of Companies

Read: Abstract-1

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Abstract-1

This lecture was delivered by Dr. Ganguly as part of the Distinguished Technologists Lecture Series of DSIR. He speaks of his personal experiences in a process of transformation of the Associated Cement Companies (ACC). Some of the main points he deals with are:

• Road map of the cement industry and its technology content.

• Transformation of technology of making cement in India – from wet process to semi-dry process to dry process.

• Deregulation of the cement industry.

• Case of Madukkarai (Tamil Nadu) where the largest flotation technology based cement plant was installed in less than 18 months.

Dr. Ganguly explains the ‘planned discontinuities’ which were created as part of the technologist’s approach to managing an enterprise (namely ACC) which had to face competition. Some of these planned discontinuities were:

• Creation of a Research and Consultancy Directorate.

• Discontinuation of white cement manufacture.

• Transfer of product called ‘brown tabular alumina’, made by an unconventional rotary kiln technology which ACC technologists had developed.

• Increase in the content of blendable materials, the steel plant slag and fly ash in varieties of cement produced by ACC.

• Decision to make electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) in India. As in 1999, ACC had an advanced gas dynamics laboratory for engineering ESPs for thermal plants, cement plants, steel plants, etc.

• Encouragement of scientists to develop a family of high purity inorganic oxides. By 1999, pilot plants of the semi-commercial type had been set up, which were exporting the entire output to Japan and North Korea.

Dr. Ganguly also highlights the dramatic transformation which has taken place in a living organisation with over 20,000 employees, operating in over 12 different states of India, and which was effected without creating any major upheaval.

• Reduction in the number of individual rotary kilns from 47 to 20.

• Increase in the the average capacity size of kilns from 500 tonnes/day to 3500 tonnes/day.

• Increase from less than 7 million tons per year of cement capacity to over 12 million tons per year, in less than 7 years.

• Increase in uptime levels from less than 270 days per year to 330 days per year.

• Savings in thermal energy and electrical energy.

• 300 % improvement in productivity: from 344 tonnes per man on rolls in 1988-89, to 1000 tonnes per man in 1999.