India’s chemical industry is rapidly transitioning from the production of commodity chemicals to a focus on sustainable, high-performance specialty chemicals. This brings challenges like global competition, stricter regulations, and pressure for safer, greener processes. To stay competitive, R&D must become more agile and innovation-centric. Despite rising interest in AI/ML and data-driven tools, challenges like fragmented data, lack of standardization, and knowledge silos persist. As a result, digital transformation is not just a choice, but a strategic necessity in process R&D.

The Indian chemicals industry is a dynamic and growing sector, adding around 7% to India's GDP and contributes around 15% to manufacturing output. The sector is expected to reach US $1 Trillion by 2040, fuelled by the rising demand from various end-use sectors such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, FMCG, automobiles, textiles, paints, and plastics. The Indian Chemicals and Petrochemicals industry has to play a key role if India needs to achieve its ambitious US $10 trillion economy goal by 2030.