India’s manufacturing sector is bubbling with potential. The country’s emerging infrastructure and endless supply of skilled labour are making it the preferred manufacturing destination for several global players. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), India’s manufacturing sector has the potential to touch $1 trillion by 2025. But there is another, more pertinent reason why everyone is feeling optimistic. It is the emergence of Industry 4.0.

Industry 4.0: Connecting ‘Things’ To Us
The fourth Industrial Revolution is unlike anything we have seen before. If you remember correctly, the first one revolved around steam power and mechanisation. The second revolution brought about electricity and mass production. Computers were the highlight of the third revolution. Now, the fourth is emerging from the shadows and blurring the lines between the real and virtual worlds.

Industry 4.0 is characterized by a fusion of technologies - a merging of physical, digital and biological spheres. Computers, automation and robotics are coming together in completely new ways, communicating with one another and with us, through the internet. Today, we have machines completing full activities themselves, with little to no human interference.

Cyber-physical connectivity is already weaving its web all around us. Virtual reality can now turn your living room into the surface of the moon. Robots are working as banks tellers. Doctors are injecting nanobots into the bloodstream to cure deadly diseases. Cars are driving themselves. Increasingly, online is becoming a very real part of offline.

The Dawn of India’s Smart Factories
If India is going to fulfil its vision of becoming a global manufacturing hub, there is a clear need for widespread adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies such as Industrial

Internet of Things, Big Data analytics and intelligent automation. Fortunately for us, IoT has addressed many of the real challenges involved, from software design to hardware implementation. Enhanced connectivity through platforms such as WiFi, BLE and LoRa, and a plethora of other technologies such as MEMS sensors, control systems, SBCs and robotics have completely transformed the manufacturing landscape.

If India is going to fulfil its vision of becoming a global manufacturing hub, there is a clear need for widespread adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies such as Industrial IoT, Big Data analytics and intelligent automation

Startups, entrepreneurs and makers are able to leverage low-cost, open-source electronics platforms and SBCs from suppliers such as element14. This puts powerful design tools in the hands of designers faster, making IoT technologies available and accessible to innovators of all types. These development platforms also help bridge the technical gap between engineers and coders.

Amazingly, everyone from the Government to research institutions to Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) are on board this smart revolution wagon. The Government of India has launched the ‘Smart Cities Mission’, a project that aims to build 100 citizen friendly and sustainable smart cities across India. The Indian Institute of Science (IIS) is building India’s first smart factory in Bengaluru with seed funding from the German company, Boeing. The factory will consist of machines that are connected digitally, which learn from the large amounts of data generated and then make autonomous decisions. It will be able to manufacture items, but at a small scale. More valuable is the kind of data the factory will allow us to collect. Details such as the posture of the welder, the kind of energy used, the damage caused to the machine, and other mission-critical aspects. This data is then used to improve processes and make course corrections.

Renowned German auto component manufacturer, Bosch, will set up smart manufacturing units at all 15 centres in India by 2018. General Electric has invested $200 million in its only multi-modal factory in India, where digitally interlinked supply chains, distribution networks, and servicing units form a part of an intelligent ecosystem.

A Cyber-Physical Vision for the Future
The road to Industry 4.0 in India will undoubtedly be riddled with challenges. Most Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) don’t have the necessary budget or infrastructure to automate their production with robots. We can hardly call ourselves prepared to fully embrace the fourth Industrial Revolution.

But the question is not if Industry 4.0 is coming to India, but when? It is that rare transformative technology that has the power to change the way we think, live and work. It is heralded as the future of manufacturing and if India is going to become the manufacturing hub of the world, there is no better time than now for us to embrace this global movement.