The Indian chemical industry stands at a critical juncture where collaboration is not merely beneficial but essential. To remain relevant and resilient, chemical companies must move beyond isolated R&D efforts and engage in meaningful collaborations that foster sustainable and innovative growth. In such a scenario, co-innovation could help address both complex technical challenges and evolving market demands. 

The leading industry experts recently discussed the latest scenario at the e-Conference, “Unleashing the Power of Co-Innovation in the Chemical Industry” organized by the Indian Chemical News on November 8, 2024. The discussion was moderated by Pravin Prashant, Executive Editor, Indian Chemical News.

The e-Conference was supported by Schneider Electric, a leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation.

Talking about his company’s initiatives to promote co-innovation, Dr B. Venkataraman, President, Head-Global Sales & Marketing, Aditya Birla Chemicals informed: “Aditya Birla Group is a truly a customer centric organization and we create value with to our customers by working with them. Our partnership is with both the customer as well as suppliers. Apart from that, we have done external partnerships with universities. Recently we collaborated with National University in the US along with one of the partners Orbital Composite to create a recyclable 3D printing composite to reduce the productivity of making the wind blades. Normally it takes around 25 to 30 hours to make a wind blade whereas with this technology, we can do it in five to six hours. We have been consistently investing in our R&D. We have Center of Excellence, R&D centers in Thailand, India, and Germany and an upcoming one in US.  We are developing solutions for various segments including coating and construction, creating recyclable, composites, green, and sustainable products. We have currently filed for 130 patents and as the company has been into advanced material business, 60 patents have been granted to us. We have a strong innovation pipeline.”

In terms of challenges, Dr Venkataraman added further, “The mindset and lack of open innovation program are the factors that are currently lacking. What I mean is that people should have a very structured innovation program where there is a transparent communication happening to understand the value. Even if there is a value that has been created, the clear guidelines in terms of intellectual property and confidentiality have to be very clearly defined. I think, for me, that's a big challenge. Also, the involvement of cross functional team is very important. In co-innovation, it is not just the product development team that is creating value for your customers but supply chain team, R&D team, operational team, and sales and marketing team all are playing their part. The readiness and flexibility for any kind of product development and focus on sustainability besides digital tools and investment into R&D in terms of resources are very important factors.”  

Sharing a perspective on his company’s focus on innovation, Rajesh Kamat, VP & Head, Sales & Marketing, Tata Chemicals Limited said: “At Tata Chemicals, we have a very strong focus on innovation. We have three R&D centers and more than 200 scientists. We have filed more than 100 patents and have partnerships with academic Institutions, government research institutions, startups and other industry players with some specific purpose.  We look at collaboration across the board, for example, in areas like supply chain where you are working with vendors and other partners in developing solutions, where we can offer something new to our customers. We are also working with several customers to co create products. We are leveraging our skills in our own research centers as well as with networks that we have created.” 

In terms of market demand and technology trends, Kamat added, “I think there is a very clear shift to sustainability and green chemistry, meaning there is a growing demand for sustainable and eco-friendly products. Now, this is a trend that you see not just at a B2B level but even at B2C level. The energy transition in terms of electric vehicles and storage solutions are related to green electricity. The products and chemistry are related to that and I think it will gain very significant performance. We have witnessed phenomenal growth in glass particularly for solar glass applications. Similarly, the growth in EV technology has undergone significance. In terms of technology advancements, digital is the buzzword and we continue to be there. In fact, it will continue to accelerate over the next few years, you will see increasing adoption of a lot of digital technology including Artificial Intelligence and internet of things. The collaboration between industry and other agencies, be it specific startups, government institutes, universities and specialized research houses, make a lot of sense. The next few years will see a continuation of a lot of the trends, especially around sustainability, digitization and product.” 

Providing insights on his company’s strategy for co-innovation, Tapan Kumar Dhar, Senior VP & Group Head-R&D, Berger Paints India said: “If it is a mega project, we go for external collaboration and if it is incremental integration, the people from different expertise within the organization try to deliver the product. That's how we go about differentiating between normal innovation and mega type innovation of complex projects. We do take help from different research institutes and CSL labs, However, whenever you take our project, we really see if it adds value or not and check the problem statement at the very beginning. Unless the deliverance of the product is not fixed, you don't really find much of the value without external collaboration. We also take the needs of the customer into consideration. That's how we manage the innovation here.” 

Sharing his experience of working with academia, Dhar informed, “Often during collaborations, partners may not have much idea of the actual users’ requirement and that is one big problem. This gap can be addressed through a shared goal and also measurable delivery. While a scientist would be very happy to discover some molecule, whether this can be scaled up or not, am assessment should be a part of the discussion. At the same time, working with academics, or maybe industry partners also involves timeline and the cost.  Again, in this sort of a collaboration, having faith and trust related to IP protection is a must. The project ownership and flexibility of partners to share the data is critical. Some of these gaps such as product delivery, IP protection, cost aspect, and timeline must be addressed at the very beginning.” 

Talking about his company’s co-innovation initiatives and need to address the IP related challenges, Vinod P Joshi, Head-R&D, India Glycols Limited stated: “Co innovation is approach the where the company  partners with customers and suppliers to create the new tailored solutions that meet the specific requirements. The alignment of the goals of the parties involved and open communication in a transparent way with customer centric focus is required. The trust and risk sharing, and of course, flexible IP management system. In the past at India Glycol we have done this model with our several customers in India. We framed out specifications for products based on our interactions with customers. As a result, the business remains with India Glycol for last 20-30 years. The partnerships have led to a long term sustainability and business model.” 

“In terms of Intellectual Property (IP), there is still a lack of awareness in India. When you are doing a good development, the sharing of IP and benefits is a big challenge. The most of the R&D work is happening only within research institutes and they are not commercializing the innovation. This is the area of conflict especially when they don't file IP and you will see a clone that comes out suddenly. Therefore, creation of an IP framework is needed. If you work with the raw material supplier on a new technology, you will basically do an agreement with him on exclusivity but what we have seen is that the commitment from the suppliers, or the other parties, is not so strong. The alignment between partners in co-innovation is a bigger issue as of now,” added Joshi. 

Emphasizing on the importance of collaboration to meet high expectations on product performance, Sanjeev Gupta, Director-R&D, Shalimar Paints opined: “Most of the customers are expecting a higher performance, basically life improvement of the products. To meet such expectations at the company level alone is not at all possible. The expectations such as customization of performance level to the 15-20 years, performance warranty to the tune of 15 years and no failures. That would require collaborating with testing laboratories all across the world and have a system where you can predict that level of performance in advance at the time of product development and commercialization. Actually, if we collaborate a lot with and customers, we can also find ways to eliminate waste. It gives you a point of innovation and develops new things. A lot of parameters like appearance, improvements, etc. Cannot be addressed individually but working as a team with three four companies together. Without innovating for the buyer, no company can survive in the long term.” 

Optimistic about the India story, Gupta shares a few positive examples: "With customers getting more aware about the technologies being used globally, the industry is getting competitive and thus driving efficiency. Each industry segment wants to compete with China in terms of cost effective products that are ready for export. There have been improvements in knowledge, basic skill levels and self-reliance driven by the push from the government. For example, nobody was making monomers in India because it was not viable. Now BPCL and Indian Oil are making monomers here in India. Similarly, there is no infrastructure for battery cells manufacturing but with government support, Indian manufacturers are looking at raw material options. Earlier Indian industry was working only on a cost but now it is performance and adding value to the customer. The addition of the latest digital technology into the manufacturing is leading to a big transformation of processes. In the paint industry, the elimination of waste within raw material sourcing because of inventory has helped bring a change. With scanners at the various levels of the supply chain, the information is available at the tip of your fingertips. The regulatory compliance in many paint segments have improved and they have eliminated carcinogenic products. There is a lot of R&D effort from the industry and with more investment in research, we will see more differentiated and newer products."  

Sharing insights on his company’s focus on the co-innovation, Bhaskar Sinha, Director-Innovation Lab, Schneider Electric said: “At the innovation lab, which is a special unit of the R&D, we solve problems that are of high value for the customers. The method used here is through co innovation. We look at four aspects: domain, understanding the market trends, and the forces, the technologies, and the skills that are required. And then we use this concept of co- innovation where we have the customer at the center, and then we bring in the network to solve the customer problems.” 

“India’s GDP is growing and consumer behavior is changing but our per capita consumption is still lower as compared to the global economy, which means that we have further demand on these kinds of new innovative solutions or more demand from the industry to give them something better. And again the trends such as sustainability, circularity, electrification, digital are kind of pushing this forward. One of the things that we have been seeing over the last several years is the various industries are kind of getting into each other's territory. It creates the room for new opportunities. And at the same time, the chemical industry is becoming central to it. For example, the steel industry is one of the top pollutants and they are looking at how they can reduce the carbon footprint. One option is green hydrogen as a reducing agent. The coating and paint industry are also moving forward to integrate the supply chain, where they are trying to get into the raw materials, which are the hardcore chemicals. Hence, all the industries are getting interconnected and opening up new opportunities,” added Sinha.

Explaining how his company is using the co-innovation as a model to create solutions for customers, Prashant Chandanapurkar, Senior General Manager- Innovation Lab, Schneider Electric said: “The most important thing about the collaborative approach is addressing the customers’ problems typically related to the challenges faced by them. When we visit the customers, we see a whole list of problems but that needs to be prioritized. We see our customers benefiting in terms of time to market as the solutions developed through co-innovation help customers to develop an edge in terms of a competitive advantage and meet regular market requirements. We are working with various types of industries including oil and gas. From sea water desalination to copper processing all the way to some of these newer industries such as green hydrogen production and so on.

“We see three key trends in the chemical industry which we call circularity, digital and electric. The biggest challenge is how we can make the invisible visible and measurable.  Thanks to IoT, AI, machine learning analytics and also development of a lot of  IT-infra, which is required to support the digital, is now already in place. The third area is the electric part wherein we are talking not just about the energy but also making the energy green here. Therefore, electricity itself is the biggest vector for decarbonization,” concluded Chandanapurkar.