Industry 4.0 & India: status, challenges & opportunities

Abstract

The industries and technology around us have gone through massive transformations. Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution has brought immense opportunities for the industry to become more efficient and responsive than ever. It has helped bridge the gap between the physical and digital world through use of advanced technologies such as IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud technology etc. The world is slowly adopting these technologies to gain an edge over the competitors and to make their processes more efficient and accurate. Industry 4.0 can also potentially make the production and other processes more sustainable through improvement in efficiency and waste reduction. Industry 4.0 finds its application in almost every sector in the modern age. However, it has found most attention in creating the smart factories for the manufacturing sector. They are also seen as potential game changers for the healthcare sector where they are at present mostly used for predictive diagnosis but are seen as potential game changer for the sector in upcoming future. The adoption rates of the Industry 4.0 technology vary for each sector and also country to country. The major challenge in the adoption of these technology at present is financial feasibility and access to technology. The countries that have provided incentives for adoption of Industry 4.0 have started to see the impact on their progress. India has to go a long way in adoption of Industry 4.0 across sectors, but some of the industries are fast moving from traditional methods to Industry 4.0. The future of technology certainly seems to be bright keeping in mind the opportunities provided by Industry 4.0 and the sentiment of industries towards adoption of it.