Code No: P024 Price:1000 Category: Electronics & Instrumentation, Control, Automation, Communication Information: Instrumentation
Swot Analysis of the Instrumentation Industry in India
This report presents a current and future scenario of instrumentation usage, manufacture and development in India against a backdrop of international trends and advances. In the light of liberalizing policies, the report brings out the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) applicable to Indian capability at the level of users, manufacturers and institutions. Based on a field survey of 265 users, manufacturers and experts, the findings lead to suggestions for specific modes of cooperation between R & D Institutions and Indian Manufacturers aimed at improved internal capability to bridge the technological gap and face the competition which is increasingly expected from abroad.
Indian Instrumentation Scenario
Thanks to past protectionist policies, India stood among the lowest in usage of instrumentation compared to its GDP (0.17%) in the mid 80’s. Indonesia and Philippines were about comparable in this respect. The areas of instrumentation studied by us within the time and cost constraints, indicate a growth in demand for modern instruments at a conservative 12%, to reach about Rs. 29 Billion in 2000-01. a growth of 2.5 times in seven years. At the same time, local production has been showing growth of around 17% which will provide about Rs. 20 Billion worth of instrumentation locally at the end of the century. At that time, instrumentation usage would be about 0.4% of Indian GDP.
This conservative picture shows that India will still be dependant at the turn of the century on imports for its more advanced instrumentation highest dependence on imports will be in Analytical Instruments (73%) followed by Instruments for Special Applications (52%). On the other hand Process Instrumentation is nearly self sufficient locally and will become more so by end century. Details of demand vs supply along with a comprehensive list of imported equipments is provided in the body of the report.
About 10% of local manufacturers depended to varying extent on technology obtained from national R & D organizations. The rest are about equally dependent on foreign and in-house technology. While large and well established names have foreign tie-ups it is the medium –sized technocrat that undertakes substantial in-house development. Regarding the extent of help desired from national R & D organizations, only 5% were enthusiastic to use it frequently, about 30% occasionally while a whopping 45% “never”. It is important that this reluctance be overcome through confidence building measures between institutions and industry.
Only about 220% of the respondents were found to undertake actual product development. Technical efforts at the rest were aimed at upgradation of previous product or indigenization (50%) while the remaining aimed at production-support activities such as quality, trouble-shooting or tooling. There was no mention of serious basic research at any manufacturer. As a result, 42% of the respondents confessed to being 2-3 years behind international technology while another 5% indicated 3-5 years. On the other hand, users of instruments felt that locally available instruments were behind-times to even greater extent resulting in the need for imports ranging from 25% in the Textile industry to as high as 85% in the Food Processing industry.
There is considerable dependence of the instrumentation manufacturers on imported components. Only one in eight of the respondents claimed to be less than 10% dependent on imported components: three out of four depended on imports upto 30%. Scope for imports is seen as unavoidable in the areas of sensors, Integrated Circuits (IC) and, in due course, on Surface Mount Devices (SMD), a situation which is also duplicated in the rest of the electronics industry. The important \need for local activity in advanced components is thus highlighted.
The power of electronics in instrumentation is being exhibited through Communication, Computation and Control (C-cubed). Conversion of the analog parameter, digitalization of te signal, transmission to the processing centre, integration into IC’s, consequent miniaturization and compression of computing and software into Micro-processors and Memories has made possible (in compact packages) online manipulation of complex measurands with image processing. This has enabled immediate data-collection, detail analysis, meaningful display, leading to quick decision making which is so important in todays fast-moving science, technology, industry and commerce. More details are embodied in the body of the report.
Continuing research and improvement in the advanced countries has enabled the probing of an ever increasing range of parameters. As result, the worldwide usage of instrumentation has spread in a big way in the following activities in order of importance:
- Processing and Manufacturing Automation
- Personal and Home Applications
- Scientific Measurements
- Health Services
- Environmental protection
- Office automation & Communication
- Automobiles
- Power and Energy
Along with the proliferation of uses, the response-speed, precision, analytical-ability and reliability of instruments has been increasing dramatically. Instrumentation is increasingly approached as a system rather than an individual instrument. Through the use of integration, the partitioning between sensing, analog processing, A/D conversion, communication, digital processing, computing and display is getting fuzzy and diffused. Several of these steps are being combined in convenient ways as desired by the designer for greater user convenience and appeal.
Key roles are being played by new types of sensors, by ever larger memory devices, by powerful microprocessors and by LCD displays. Indian instrument researchers (whether public or private) will have to first learn to mater the applications of these devices (imported) to innovated better instrumentation systems. The actual availability of these important devises locally is, however, quite a way off … which can be the subject of separate study and planning.
Comparison with Indian Situation Due to the above gaps in technology, local instruments are found to be considerably behind in performance, facilities, ease-of-use, ergonomy, appearance and ruggedness. This gap cannot be bridged without greater attention of local research, development, product innovation, and high quality production. A few of the Indian industrial units are at most putting 2 to 3 personnel to the task of “development”. Even then, these personnel are ot left to be “dedicated” to development but are often drawn into other duties. The facilities put aside are marginal and R & D often has to wait for QC and other departments to free-up the facilities for tem. In the face of in pouring of imported technology, the Indian industry has an inhibited outlook and hardly any long-term perspective for its in-house research or even development.
Based on the information and data revealed during the study, it has been possible to conclude about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats applicable to Indian instrumentation activity at the user, manufacturer and institutional level. Further consideration of these attributes enables us to arrive at suggestions as to the models of cooperation which are possible between various national R&D institutions and users as well as manufacturers in the instrumentation area.
Summary of SWOT
| Users | Manufacturers | Institutions |
| S T R E N G T H S Growing pace to modernization New large projects need instr. Large projects aware of benefits Willing to invest in instr. Prefer local where feasible. |
Basic instruments available readily Low cost from purchase to maintenance New collaborations possible good Import content generally below 30% SME do technology improvisation Ample software talent available | Ample facilities & infrastructure Multi-disciplinary expertise Fundamentally qualified personnel Admin. & Finance support Can reach out geographically. |
| W E A K N E S S E S Small/medium users not upto date System-house help not taken Resist retrofitting in old plants Conservation, pollution. Health, transport, poor instr. Users. Instr. Technicians shortage. |
Advanced products limited Technology absorbed not mastered Weak in sensors & input modules Inadequate use of software Low interaction with R & D instns.
Post-Sale service not spread wide. |
Practical development limited No market understanding Isolation from industry Poor design, engg., documentation Time targets unimportant
Poor staff versatility |
| O P P O R T U N I T I E S
To import latest instr. Systems to enhance awareness for training instr. technicians for use of systems houses |
For foreign strategic tie ups o take help of R & D instns. To sub-contract system houses | Purchase foreign technology develop industry relations encourage “venture” projects User benefit programmes Provide consultancy to users |
| T H R E A T S
Import of end products by consumer Misjudgment of tech. imports Financial limitations Inadequate use of expert support |
Import of intr. By users Wholly owned MNC compete Lack of sustained R & D | Imports by mggrs. And users Arrival of multinationals Short time cycle of products Changing technologies Lack of industry confidence. |
Cooperation Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, certain directions which the institutions can undertake for commercial benefit have been described. In taking up such activities, the institutions would need to work with user organizations, manufacturers, financial bodies. Certain activities will, however, have to be undertaken within the institutions themselves.
User Development Programs (especially for medium-sized users) will serve to increase awareness of the benefits and increased of competence in incorporating instrumentation into their working. This is best dome in cooperation with Associations of particular segments of industry in the form of practical workshops, short courses, technicians training sessions on a pay a you go basis.
Awareness and competence in medium-sized users will lead to a boost in demand for incorporation of instrumentation, for thus, the institutions should be able to offer instrumentation systems design, integration and installation services at terms affordable by medium-sized users.
To the manufacturers, the services may range from indigenization of imported products to upgradation of designs of current models using more advanced techniques. With confidence built up due to successful; cooperation in these simpler tasks, sponsored product development, joint productionising can be undertaken. Where totally new concepts need to be explored, the possibility of drawing in venture finance (via TDICI) should be examined. Selection of products to de this has been attempted in this report and a short list to choose from has been provided.
Programs that the institutions could initiate on their own can be those involving anticipatory research where no immediate sponsor is evident but can be attracted after the research achieves a visible level of achievement. Ideas to be explored could be in the realm of new sensors, virtual instrumentation, marine instrumentation and monitoring equipments (usually needed by the state) for energy conservation, environment, pollution, narcotics, explosives and so on.
For special apparatus which may be available from abroad at very high costs (electron microscope and its derivatives, field emission devices, ion implanters, molecular beam apparatus, etc.) the local demand would be small but could save a lot of foreign exchange. A mission approach will be where the multidisciplinary skills of institutions will need to e deployed and coordinated not only to do research in these areas but to build the actual final product for continuous use and sell the same against orders to customers who wish to have a more economical device.
To put itself in a position to undertake these undoubtedly substantial challenges, each institution will have to be through a stage of transformation and restructuring. There will have to be a change of its won vision, objectives, organization, and operation. Hitherto non-available functions of productionisation, documentation, servicing, marketing and finance will need to be created. It would be sensible to redeploy people with these talents from the existing staff to the maximum extent. If necessary, training and retraining may need to be provided. To top it all, a strong dose of “Technology Management” will need to be injected.
