Swatantra Nirmal Foundation

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INTRODUCTION

Industries are the back bone of any country. The economic development of a nation depends on the stage of its industrial development. Its industrial richness, (innovative products, processes and services; their quality and quantity with global perspective), decides its position on global map. Innovative Industrial Growth of a nation is a way to maintain and survive in this competitive world.

The industries on one hand provide their products and services for uplift and betterment of society & nation, also provide employment to the mass people which helps to increase per capita and reduces the poverty; on the other hand, industries should be watchful to the changing demands of the market, needs of the society and nation and should keep their approach modern and relevant. This demands that all industries must have Research & Development as their inbuilt and integrated programme on continuous basis. The Industrial Research & Development programs and projects should be innovative and user need-driven, and they should lead to new products, services or processes with a potential to commercialization at global competition while also having favourable societal impacts. By Innovation, the industries make their products, processes and services more attractive, effective and user friendly. Knowledge and Technology with deep understanding are the two vital components of Innovation and these two important components, in turn, are the outcomes of Research & Development. Innovation is basically A Research On research. Inhouse Research & Development is therefore essential in any industry.

With the development of industrial sector having built in R&D, the employment opportunities will further increase and rate of unemployment will reduce.

CHALLENGES AND THREATS

• Dynamically Changing Needs of Society, Industries and Corporate World.
• Rapid Advancements in Technology & its influence on Society – Industrial needs for technical man power is continuously changing due to rapid technological advancements. The requirements of industries and corporate world are becoming more demanding & multidisciplinary.
• Adaption of New Technologies e.g. IOT, DIGITAL INDIA and everything.
• Effect of Globalization – The Globalization has introduced global competition at all levels and in all fields.
• Interdisciplinary Dependences – Needs multidimensional & multidisciplinary technical manpower to work in industries
• Technological Obsolescence in Man and Machines at faster rate.

We have to be watchful of our biggest enemy – “Obsolescence” in every sector of our functioning, may be in man, material and machines.

It may be in education and training, man and machine, traditions and dynamically changing Technology, processes and our products – A Global Scenario.

A Warning: A country, which cannot overcome its “Technological Obsolescence” by its own Indigenous means, will have – A BLEAK FUTURE.

Though these are challenges and threats but provide lot more scope and opportunities for providing Innovative Solutions.

To face these challenges, we need to establish Industrial Research & Development in house and have a Tie-Up with technical institutions which supply technical manpower to work in industries. i.e.

• Integration of Innovative Research &Development into industries.
• Industry – Institution Convergence with effective utilization and sharing of Personnel and Infrastructural resources.

Industry–Institution Convergence:

A Balanced Composite System of these two vital components; the academic institutions and the industries – A Novel Way of Tie Up.

Tie Up of industries with reputed institutions in India and abroad, for research purposes, is very much required. This is the necessity for keeping good health of industries & business organizations in future.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES & RELATED RESEARCH AREAS:

A word of caution – Convergence of technologies is knocking at our doors. We shall survive only with multidisciplinary approach and multidisciplinary knowledge.

• Most important – Use of Clean and Green technology: During R&D of any products, processes or services due considerations should be given to make it pollution free. Special considerations should be given for designing products for power, transportation and food & agriculture industries. Innovative products, processes and services to be developed for production and utilization of Renewable Energy. As an example, conversion of Gasoline Vehicle Design to Electrical Vehicle Design and installation of suitable Fast Charging stations. Simple and user friendly devices to be developed for measurement and control of pollution of all types (water, land and environment pollution).
• Advanced Manufacturing and Materials
• Bio-Informatics – (Biology + Information Technology)
• Bio-Technology: (Bio sciences + Medical sciences + Engineering & Technology)
• Genetic Engineering: (Micro Biology + Molecular Biology + Biosciences + Medical Sc.)
• Nano Technology: (Medical Science + Material Science + Electronics + ………..)
• VLSI Design – Micro-miniaturization of devices and components
• Advance Computer Architecture.
• System and Information Security.
• Operating System, Embedded System, Mobile Operating System& RTS.
• Open Source Software (environment and development of specific tools).
• Software Engineering (including recent developments in software tools and techniques, various software development environments, software reliability & testing).
• Advance Programming Techniques.
• Storage Management (Data Mining, Ware housing, Grid Storage)
• Advance Database Management System.
• Big Data and Data Analysis
• Blockchain Technology
• Artificial Intelligence & its applications – Future belongs to AI.: (Creating Brain Power —- A Parallel Artificial Human Race) <.li>
• Robotics, Drones & Automation (Computer Vision & Navigation)
• Machine Learning.
• Soft Computing (Cognitive Science, Bio-neuron Computing, ANN, Fuzzy logic, Genetic Algorithms & Applications to AI).
• In general, applications of behavioral sciences, statistical techniques and use of important tools & techniques developed in other disciplines in AI.
• Internet Of Things (IOT) – A Multidisciplinary Area with applications in Smart Mobility, Smart Cities, Smart Manufacturing, Precision Agriculture etc.
• Digital Twins and Virtual Reality.
• Simulation & Modeling.
• Computer Graphics & Animation.
• Information & Communication Technology (ICT): (Information Technology + Communication Engineering)
• Information Management & Resource Planning.
• IT Tools & Solutions (Semantic Web Technology).
• Cloud Computing, Grid Computing
• High Performance Computing – Parallel Distributed Computing, Cluster Computing & Super Computing (Hyper Cube conf.)
• Mobile Computing & Mobile Applications (with Reference to 4G, 5G and ……?? their Applications in Smart Mobility)
• Communication (Mobile Comm., Adhoc Nets. & Next Gen Nets).
• DSP & DIP
• POWER / ENERGY : Exploration, Production, Storage and Conversion: (…+Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Fuel Cell, Hydrogen Fuel + Renewable Energy (Solar, Bio…))
• Operation Research.
• ….. and Other Areas …….

And finally creating an Integrated Platform for convergence of Devices, Processes and Services and assigning user defined specific tasks to specially designed Intelligent Agents to carry out the tasks. Some of the Engineering Grand Challenges to be taken care for providing Industries “An Healthy Environment” are:

• Environmental Constraints (Global Warming)
• Power Constraints
• Secure Cyber Space
• Provide Access to Clean Water
• Improve Medicine and Health Care Delivery
• Reducing vulnerability to Human and Natural Threats
• and many more ……

FUTURE TRENDS – NEW HORIZONS AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES:

Rapid advancements and refinements in science and technology especially in the areas of power engineering, material science, medical sciences, life sciences, molecular machines and molecular robots, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, information and communication technology, big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, virtual reality etc are opening up new horizons to be explored. Some of the ideas which till yesterday were either unimaginable or were confined only to the illustrious stories of the fiction world, are now being realized and implemented. Refined techniques and nano (suksham) probes have been developed and are being utilized to interact directly with the nature and to explore and understand its inner secrets. However, we should approach some of these areas cautiously with great care and conscience.

‘Suksham is powerful beyond imagination’.

National Growth, being multidisciplinary in nature, is closely linked with the progresses made in all concerned areas which, in turn, are also linked with each other. Further, the progress in any area depends upon the exploration of new horizons, adding up new dimensions and developing innovative techniques and solutions in that area which can only be achieved with scientific and technological advancements i.e.