India Inc should adopt green technology to succeed in future

At Glasgow on Monday, while announcing India’s netzero target of 2070, Narendra Modi emphasised that India is the only big economy that has delivered so far, in letter and spirit, on the Paris commitment. From an ambitious ‘netzero by 2030’ target for Indian Railways, the fourth-longest rail network in the world, to the emissions slashing LED (light-emitting diode) bulb UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) campaign, India is spearheading the quest for a sustainable planet. But is India Inc, whose role is vital in such a transition, now willing to make the next big move — switch to green technology in a big way?

There is more enthusiasm today about green tech than ever before, with consumers opting for low-carbon products and governments imposing carbon border tariffs. Global investors are keen on funding cutting-edge technologies in hard-to decarbonise sectors and other clean-tech startups. Scaling hard-core technologies is challenging and requires vision and commitment from the industry leaders. But the rewards are exceptional for ‘digitally green’ companies. The severe impact of climate change, despite these challenges, presents huge opportunities for Indian industries to become global leaders if we get a head-start. For this, Indian business and industry will have to restructure, resize and redesign.

The ability of industry to make this transition quickly is critical for attracting global capital and investments, and to integrate deeply with the global value chains. Add to that, the net-zero challenge with its own set of growing non-/low-carbon emission incentives. According to a January 2020 Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) report (bit. ly/3GBNXT0), sustaining global value chains in the future will require digitisation, which can improve productivity and resilience, as well as the ability to reduce carbon footprint through efficient use of resources. Further, production would have to transition to net zero and each industry would need its own transition to curb emissions specific to its technology and economics.

India has set itself a goal to attain self-reliance in energy by 2047. To achieve this, there is a need to heavily invest in cutting-edge technologies across areas such as batteries, solar panels, green hydrogen, electrolysers and green steel, and focus on their consequent scaling up. Lithium-air, lithium-sulfur, sodium-ion, aluminium-ion and solid-state batteries all hold promising potential. Next generation and high-efficiency solar panels, powered by kerfless (without grooves or slits) solar wafers and heterojunction photovoltaic (PV) cells, are the future of the energy industry.

It is now the opportune moment for industry to start making this transition to lean and green tech. The transition has to be supported by a dramatic shift in mindset. On the digital front, this requires transformation of manufacturing intelligent networks of machines and processes with IT and communication technology. This, in turn, requires our companies to bring together technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big-data analytics, augmented reality (AR), robotics, cybersecurity and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication to create digital factories.

If we are to make Indian products globally competitive, then the industry must establish a new identity of quality and reliability. It must build world-acceptable and worlddemanding products, increase investments in corporate R&D and drive cutting-edge product investment in future growth areas. Making calculated bets on future technologies holds the key. The Swedish State-owned venture, HYBRIT (Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology), made such a bet on ‘green steel’ — steel with lowest carbon footprint possible. In August this year, HYBRIT announced the world’s first customer delivery of steel produced without using coal. Encouraged by this, fellow Swedish manufacturer H2 Green Steel (H2GS) AB is planning to build a fossil fuel-free steel plant in the village of Norra Svartbyn near the town of Boden in northern Sweden, including a sustainable hydrogen facility, with production starting in 2024.

An all-of-industry approach is the need of the hour to position India’s brand as that of green, high quality and high reliability. Old industries that don’t transform will wither away.