How to 10x MakeInIndia

In the early years of the aughts, I developed microcontroller based remote controllers for air conditioners. Other than the microcontroller, the entire unit, what we would now call a cyber-physical system, was indigenously developed by us. This product was the first high volume product that my company (PRAVAK) developed, manufactured, and sold to the AC manufacturers. Because we were importing the microcontrollers, we were keeping track of the count. I was jubilant when we breached the 10,000 microcontrollers mark for two successive years. Then LG and Samsung entered the Indian consumer goods market, and the local competition was wiped out. Indigenous technology lost the battle of the air conditioner remote controllers.

We pivoted to designing microcontroller based energy meters. The entire hardware and firmware was indigenously created by us (except the microcontroller itself). The back story is that at that time, electronic energy meters had just been introduced in the country. The distribution companies were saddled with power theft, and other ailments which plagued the government service providers. Electronic meters were supposed to combat some of the issues. The first units supplied by a particular manufacturer (with buggy and poor quality firmware) were severely unreliable. Large scale deployment of these units led to incorrect bills being raised for consumers, for example, farmers who used electricity for irrigation. The unreliability created a political storm and raised a furore in the state assembly. We were referred to this company as cyber-physical specialists who could solve this problem. The meters we designed were reliable, accurate, tamper-proof, low-cost, and had a robust firmware. With this product we crossed the 100,000 microcontrollers per year, and subsequently, the 1 million microcontrollers mark. The energy metering market was a unique high volume domain — everyone in India who uses electricity needs to be supplied with an energy meter. Indigenous products are now dominating this space. Indigenous technology won this battle.

Now that I think back, the pivot was in how we used our expertise. From creating the entire product within our organization (as in the case of the air conditioner remote controllers), to creating a cyber-physical technical design and allowing a number of manufacturers to license it — this change in how we used our expertise created a win for #MakeInIndia even before it was a hashtag. It allowed us to 10x our impact.

Over the next decade, I was ready to challenge myself anew — this time to create indigenously developed technical products for the defense sector. The unique challenges attracted me. We replaced valve and transistor based systems with LSIs, VLSIs and MCU based designs, first as sub-modules and spare parts for radars, ground equipment and then complete modules and systems. The process of developing a product for military use is a long drawn one, typically taking one to two years from concept to induction for the smaller projects. Today we have successfully executed over twenty such projects.

While the pace of indigenous development has increased in the years leading up to #MakeInIndia, if our country is to become self reliant in this area, an ecosystem is required. This is because developing defense technology is hard. It consumes a lot of resources and the critical resources are scarce. Just as we moved from manufacturing microcontroller based systems to licensing the technology we developed, I am thinking that we might make a similar shift — from individually executing projects to seeding the ecosystem.

The one thing no one tells you about (but you should do) if you want to land a defense indigenization project

Amongst the three wings of the Indian Defense system, the Air Force and Navy use more technology, relatively speaking, than the Army, which has a greater emphasis on physical human power. Think about it this way: when a pilot is up in the air, there is an immense amount of technology needed to keep him or her up there and have them be successful in their mission. So, if I was thinking as an opportunistic entrepreneur, I would start by writing proposals to the Indian Air Force and Navy for technology indigenization.

As a Google-happy entrepreneur, you might start by searching through the list of open tenders and writing a few proposals to see what sticks (I will be following shortly with a post on writing proposals).

OR you can do this and save yourself a few hundred hours:

The Indian Air Force has a well organized website with an entire section on “Make in India”. It has, for example, a list of open indigenization projects. [Edit: This link is broken as of Feb 15th 2021. If you go to https://indianairforce.nic.in/ and then Click on “Make in India”, “Indigenization”, “Indigenization Requirements of IAF”, you will reach the right place.] If I scroll down the list published on 16th August 2019, I would find myself interested in the code scan card and the NAV display circuit card. But these lists do not have enough information. For example, which system is this card a member of, what role does the card play, what documentation survives if any, whether you can see a working card in operation during a site visit. In other words, you have a picture and a tweet-able description, but not enough information to put in a credible, and for you — profitable, proposal. Remember that a proposal is only profitable to you as an entrepreneur if you can deliver the final product within your budget, and get it approved, and get paid for it.

I will tell you the secret trick to get going on this path: locate the contact details of the BRDs, which are the Base Repair Depots (around 13 of them, all over the country). Every BRD specializes in a different class of equipment used by the Indian Air Force. Every quarter, each of the BRDs hosts an open event where they invite vendors to see what products they would like to be indigenized. To get on the list of invitees, all you have to do is register yourself with the BRD. This is done by the simple act of filling out a form that the BRD will give you when you approach them (see above).

So here’s what you should do that no one tells you about: call in to ask for this form and get yourself registered.

You might ask: why am I telling everyone the secret trick on a public blog, instead of saving it for my kin and my friends? I will tell you about in a little bit. On why I believe that a rich and vibrant technical ecosystem helps everyone in my post on culturing vendors.

It’s not all “electronics”

I am impressed with the online information provided as part of the #MakeInIndia initiative. For example, a list of open indigenization projects is available for anyone to look through. As I write this, I scroll through the list published on 16th August 2019. I notice the way my attention moves: scroll over the foam casing, stop at the code scan card, scroll over the gear assembly, stop at the NAV display circuit card.

Though my blog entries look at the projects and opportunities through an “electronics, communication, and computing” lens, there is sophisticated technology that is not all “electronics”, and it is as important as “electronics and digitization” for India’s military strength.

My first point is that there are opportunities for indigenization in chemistry, materials sciences, and manufacturing processes. I marvel at how light a casing can be and yet will survive a fall from 5000 feet; how a rubber hose will resist extreme temperature and vibration. The opportunities to develop indigenous technology is not limited to a particular field. Foam, pipes, all of these are important — we must remember that for want of a nail the kingdom was lost. So, my friends, we must respect the nail.

My second point is that reliability and ruggedness are key parameters in military technology. Both of these have to be demonstrated before an equipment is adopted. As a result, an earlier generation technology often coexists with a newer generation technology.

Let me explain with an example. Today, navigation is rarely done with a paper map. Gyro based navigation guidance systems exist side by side with a satellite / communication based navigation system. From a development standpoint, more than five decades separate these technologies. More importantly, the gyro based navigational systems serves as the fallback if the modern system fails or is unavailable for some reason.

I cannot help but give a little background on inertial guidance — because I like tangents and scenic routes to my final point. So let’s say that you are at sea or in the sky, how do you navigate in the absence of reference points? Prior to satellites, navigation was done with inertial guidance systems – with gyroscopes. A gyro is a spinning wheel. These were precision machines (what we might also refer to as sophisticated technology). When the aircraft would change direction, the gyro would precess, and the amount of precession could be used to estimate the change in direction, and to plot your course. At the time that the gyro systems were invented, electronics was in its infancy. This equipment is electromechanical, and when they were invented, they were state of the art. They are just the thing that is needed when you need to travel large distances in a short amount of time. So if you are a missile and you are going to reach your target 1200km away in 15 minutes, you cannot use the stars in the sky to navigate. In many cases, these systems are self-contained and do not rely on communication links etc. and they were the genesis of what we would call “smart navigation” today.

Communications, Controls, and why there is a cyber-physical focus in Defense Indigenization projects

India is an IT powerhouse. When payroll programs, inventory management systems, enterprise software, database driven software is needed, there is plenty of know-how available within our country. I am confident our officers and jawans will have the best.

On the ground however, the equipment that is used by our soldiers is necessarily hardware. A soldier needs night vision goggles, eaves dropping software, navigational equipment, communication devices (voice/data), mine detectors, smart weapons, drones etc. In short, the soldier must be equipped to defend himself as well as to launch an offensive. Soldiers tend to work in teams, which could be a few men or hundreds. A lot of the hardware in a modern army uses electronics, and embedded computers or other digital processing systems. This is very different from the IT hardware/software.

In the earlier days, a computer meant a machine that had a screen, a keyboard, and a free-standing CPU or a laptop. When Nokia made a mobile phone, it was not a computer, it was a phone. Today, the difference is not so obvious. A phone is now an app, just like other apps such as youtube or whatsapp or google maps.

What makes hardware cutting edge is software; in other words, intelligence that is built into the hardware. This combination makes for a cyber-physical focus in defense indigenization projects.

Digitalization, information technology, and Internet of Things (IoT) are terms that are commonly being used today to denote the sophisticated electronics, control systems, communication devices, and security capabilities that constitute the heart of innovation in defense technology.

The message is simple. Modern defense equipment are “smart”. What ever be the end use, it is likely that some kind of an embedded computer, or a digital processing system is what makes the equipment smart. Be it a fighter aircraft that can return to base safely if the pilot loses consciousness, or a missile that can lock on to a target and destroy it, or an autonomous drone, all such smart machines / equipment must necessarily encapsulate a computing platform with suitable software.

Five things I would tell my younger self about technology indigenization in India

I started developing indigenous designs for robotic and embedded systems in India in 1989. There were no blogs then. The only way to learn was from textbooks and experience. As India starts technology indigenization in earnest, here are five things I would tell my younger self.

  • Why do it? Don’t do it for money yet. Payments can take months or years to come by owing to bureaucratic delays. Do it for the thrill of seeing your creation being bolted onto a fighter jet. Do it for the pride of demonstrating Indian-developed cutting edge technology to everyone from the jawans to the Prime Minister.
  • What is the starting cost? It will take years to prove yourself to the powers that be. Do not let that discourage you. Start small and establish a track record.
  • Is the system fair? No. There is very little knowledge as to how to indigenize. How to select a task/project for indigenization? How to choose the right vendor? How to determine whether the project has been successfully completed?
  • Is it challenging? Yes. Let us focus on the defense requirements. Other than the men who fight, the defense forces need equipment, ammunition, offensive platforms to deliver the ammunition, and defensive platforms to protect themselves. Also needed is the equipment to gather intelligence, to create doubt or confusion in the adversary etc. not to mention the clothing, shelter and food requirements for the men who must perform their jobs in the most severe environments.
  • What is Indigenization? Our country has relied on imported equipment for most of its needs in all fields of life. Indigenously manufactured content / products have been slowly added over the years in the civilian life. Today we may be self sufficient in producing food, cement, steel, automobiles, textiles, but we seriously lack indigenous technology to meet our defense requirements. The IT sector which contributes so much to the Indian economy also depends entirely on tools and core products developed outside the country. Indigenization is also loosely interchanged with the word “Digitalisation”. A large number of modern systems are now implemented using the so called ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). In such cases too, we develop apps or solutions riding on the back of existing platforms such as Android and Cloud based systems. The digital computer is expected to be the cure of all ills. Sadly, it is both true and false.

About this blog and why it started

My daughter started a blog for me. I am an entrepreneur with over 40 years of experience developing indigenous designs for specialized robots and embedded systems in India. I have two children, to whom I have successfully passed on my love for science and engineering. My wife has patiently listened to me talk about technology, economics and India for over 40 years, while she has gone about educating and inspiring young minds in the field of computer science, robotics and design. As I contemplate the next phase of my life, and the India that my grandchildren will inherit, my daughter asked me to start a blog to share my musings. This is it.