The Future

Growth Sectors in
Digital Engineering
September 2022
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Table of contents
Foreword 05
Executive summary 06
Growth themes and use cases in the
focus sectors 08
Introduction to Digital Engineering 10
Digital Engineering landscape in India 16
In focus
Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sector 17
Health care sector 28
Consumer Packaged Goods and retail sectors 44
Go-to-market strategies for Digital
Engineering for ER&D organisations 67
Challenges to future growth 79
Conclusion 83

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Foreword
In the recent years, digital platforms and tools have been recasting
relationships between organisations, customers, workers, and employers.
'Digital transformation' has dramatically become a means to boost growth and
competitiveness. The pandemic brought forth the need for organisational agility
and deeper links with customers. To thrive in a post-COVID-19 world and ensure
long-term success, businesses have recognised that their workforce and processes
must be robust and adaptive of emerging technologies.

With an optimistic Digital Engineering (DE) revenue1 growing at a CAGR of ~20

percent, India is leapfrogging into the fourth industrial revolution. The conspicuous
upswing in the advancement of the digital backbone of the second-most-populous
K.S. Viswanathan country and largest democracy is attributable to the transitional years that went
Vice President – by. The country is home to the biggest market for digital consumers with over 500
Industry Initiatives, million internet users. Fostering the third largest startup ecosystem, nurturing one
NASSCOM of the world’s youngest populations with an enormous science and engineering
talent pool, and instituting initiatives to digitally empower the society and
businesses at large, India is well positioned to embrace emerging technologies.

Our research and discussions with industry leaders define 'DE' as something
that builds smart, connected, and intelligent products with the aim to elevate
customer centricity and embrace the concept of device-as-a-service by using digital
technology as the backbone. Our research in the report indicates the ongoing
evolution of DE in India and its deployment specifically in the context of four
upcoming sectors: Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Health care,
Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), and retail. Today, the disruptive technologies
are fulfiling the promise to transform these sectors and make them stalwarts of
tomorrow. This report outlines the indicative drivers, growth themes, and use
cases across these sectors, and spotlights the projects of select DE pioneers in
India and their model of co-creation and collaboration with startups, universities,
S. Anjani Kumar and competitors.
Partner - Consulting,
Deloitte We hope that this report becomes an inspiration to all organisations that aspire to
adopt/grow in the field of DE. Maintaining this growth arc in India can be done only
when there is cross-industry collaboration, partnership, and continuous debate,
and highlighting the experience of these sectors is the first step in achieving this.

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Executive summary

In the Engineering Research & Development (ER&D) world, Digital Engineering (DE) is slowly becoming the lead
player over traditional engineering. For this report, DE has been defined as the following:

DE is platform engineering that DE is propelled by a technology

is microservices-based and layer comprising Artificial
available on cloud. It inherently Intelligence/Machine Learning/
focuses on driving end-to-end Data Learning (AI/ML/DL), big
customer experience through a data analytics, Internet of Things
culmination of technologies and (IoT), automation/robotics, cloud
better customer insights, and computing, cybersecurity,
through product and service 3D printing, and now 5G.
monetisation.

India has stepped up as a leading destination for DE. The share of DE in overall ER&D
revenue in India continues to be in the range 28-30 percent as on FY22.

The Global ER&D Pulse Survey (NASSCOM and Deloitte, 2022) highlights sectors, such as
industrial, energy and oil & gas, hardware & electronics, and automotive as the principal
sectors in the ER&D space. However, there are other sectors, that have been growing with
respect to DE, specifically, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Consumer
Packaged Goods (CPG), retail, and health care. All these sectors have one aspect in
common, i.e., they use DE creatively in both their engineering operations and as part of
their final products/solutions. The India growth story for these sectors is expected to be
significant over the next few years.

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

There are many enablers for the proliferation of DE in India. Some of these include the following:

Availability of talent – India also offers a large entry-level talent pool of more than 2 million STEM
graduates, out of which, there are sizable numbers with AI/ML, cloud, cybersecurity, and 5G skills.

Improving quality of talent – In addition, companies have adopted other strategies to increase
and improve the quality of talent pool; some are collaborating with academic institutions to
develop digital curricula, whereas others are building alternate talent pools through targeted
skilling programmes for people from tier 3/4 cities and marginal groups.

Ecosystem collaboration across startups, fintechs, and academia – The Indian startup
ecosystem is the third largest in the world and home to more than 100 unicorns. Across the
BFSI, health care, and CPG/retail sectors, there are numerous examples of domestic and global
companies tying up with these startups to co-create new products through consortium, co-
opetition, and incubator/accelerator programme models.

Support from the government institutions – The central and various state governments have
contributed significantly in fostering this external ecosystem via:
• Investing actively in technical skill development programmes (Digital India, Skill India) with private
sector companies.
• Setting up country-wide centres of excellence and accelerator programmes (e.g., FinTech Center of
Excellence, Bharat Virtual Virtual Accelerator, and COVID-19 initiatives).
• Promoting the development of tech clusters, such as BioValley and Medivalley for the medical
devices manufacturing and testing of new technologies, and the Mumbai FinTech Hub.

India is moving in the right direction to promote DE growth, but there are some additional steps that can be
taken to further the penetration of India’s contribution in DE:

Creating a balance between growing technical capabilities and industry-specific and soft skills –
Government-corporations’ collaborations are required to design upskilling/reskilling programmes
that focus on the DE application in specific industry domains.

Enhancing India’s data protection infrastructure and alleviating concerns related to patent laws –
Existing data protection regulations can be further enhanced to provide increased confidence to Global
Capability Centers and Engineering Service Providers to serve global businesses. In addition, from a
global standpoint, concerns around patentability criteria and patent maintenance need to be addressed.

Adressing regulatory gaps to help further India’s position as a DE offshoring/outsourcing location. Some of
the examples include simplifying the requirements for setting up a foreign company centre in India, revisiting
import tariff rates for hardware, and refining certain ease of doing business limits and parameters.

Across sectors, industry leaders observed a consistent increase of investments in the DE endeavours. India has already been able to
establish a strong foothold in this space through its booming talent pool, growing ecosystem for collaborations, and encouragement
towards this sector from the government institutions. These are additional key elements that will help further strengthen and
expand India's prowess in this sector across the globe.
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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Growth themes and use cases

in the focus sectors

BFSI Health care

Intelligent middleware Medical manufacturing

• Digital contracts • Additive manufacturing

• Smart risk profiling • Robotic aids

• Data security for sensitive card details • Bioprinting

• Intelligent underwriting • Biosensors

• AR-based solutions
Next-gen banking
• Digital banks Hospitals of the future
• Neo banks • Smart wearables
• Touchless banking • Remote home monitoring devices

• Remote care solutions

• VR customer experience
Digital marketplace
• Robo-advisors

• Zero-paper loan disbursement Connected health

• Intelligent workflows in
• Wealth management platforms,
pharmacovigilance
portfolio management services
• Digital medical platforms

• Connected pharmacies
Hardware in BFSI
• Telematics

• Drones in insurance claim settlement

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

CPG Retail

Performance optimisation Smart stores

• Supply chain control tower • Robots and sensors for inventory
management
• AI-powered demand forecasting
• Omnichannel presence

• Virtual fitting rooms and interactive

mirrors
Industry 4.0
• ML-powered Digital Twin • Smart Beacons for customised
offerings
• Visual inspection AI

• AMRs and cobots

Integrated business planning
• 3D printing
• End-to-end connected system for
better decision making
Customer experience and brand • AI-based emotion capturing for
recognition customer behaviour
• AR embedded product packaging

• VR-based instore and factory

experience

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Introduction to Digital
Engineering

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Digital Engineering (DE) has different definitions and connotations depending on the
company and the industry. The original definition comes from the U.S. Department
of Defense, which defines “digital engineering as an integrated digital approach
that uses authoritative sources of system data and models as a continuum across
disciplines to support lifecycle activities from concept through disposal”.1

The intent is to describe it not just as a method/approach but also what it achieves.
A revised definition includes the following:

Platform engineering Device-as-a-Service Customer-focused

Digital engineering is Digital engineering Digital engineering is a

platform engineering that inherently provides culmination of technologies
is microservices-based solutions to customers to derive better insights
and available on cloud. through product and and provide customers
service monetisation. with a superior end-to-end
experience.

Robotics Key technology IoT

enablers

Blockchain 5G

AI/ML AR/VR

3D printing

1 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.2334-5837.2020.00815.x
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Global Engineering R&D Pulse Survey 2022

Organisations’ definitions of Digital Engineering

Smart, connected, and intelligent Using data of medical patients from

products, for which the design, smart devices to drive customer
development, operations, and end- value and better health care
user experience is governed by the outcomes while ensuring continued
insights generated using data from and superior operations of medical
customers which comes under the institutions
purview of Digital Engineering
- A German medical devices company
- An Indian technology corporation

We define Digital Engineering as a tripod

of 1) design-led customer experience
transformation, 2) ensuring significant
operational efficiencies and transformation
with cloud enablement and hyper automation,
and 3) enabling new revenue channels with
omnichannel and deep data insights.

- GlobalLogic

Interconnectivity of all factories to

improve manufacturing processes Any product/service that leverages
by introducing new technologies disruptive technologies to deliver/
and implementing sustainability run digital businesses is Digital
measures, with a focus on providing Engineering. It is the intersection of
connected products for the end the CIOs’, CTOs’, and COOs’ worlds
consumer
- An Indian technology service provider
- Reckitt Benckiser

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Global trends that drive the Digital Engineering’s growth story

Customer Mutual technology and Time Data-driven

centricity business operations to market ecosystem

Driving customer Technologies, such as In the time it takes Harnessing the

success has been one VR/AR, AI, and digital to introduce a new unlimited power of data
of the biggest catalysts twins have been feature, by using legacy commissions’ valuable
behind DE. To meet used primarily in a testing methods, insights to make fast
customer expectations, “single-problem, single- competitors can and confident decisions
companies are technology solution” conduct market testing and create best-in-class
leveraging DE to manner. While these and release more products through
achieve lower cost-to- technologies have complete products. efficient production.
serve, ensure higher enormous potential even Digital modelling and By integrating multiple
willingness to spend, as isolated solutions, simulation tools reduce partner activities and
increased loyalty and their convergence the time, money, data, digital thread
brand advocacy. promises even greater and effort required enables efficiency of
possibilities to develop to test and iterate on business processes,
new tools, methods, and the design of novel such as optimising
solutions that create technologies. operations, automating
process efficiencies, the build and
save money, and lead to integration of systems.
further innovation.

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

India ER&D and DE revenue in US$ billion FY22.

• The share of traditional ER&D in overall ER&D revenue is

expected to go down in the near future, with DE taking more
of a centre stage.
28-30%
Digital • The Global ER&D Pulse Survey (NASSCOM and Deloitte, 2022)
highlights sectors, such as industrial, energy and oil & gas,
hardware & electronics, and automotive as the principal
sectors in the ER&D space. These sectors continue to invest
Share of
in India for software design/engineering, developing Industry
the digital
engineering 4.0 solutions, and creating customer-centric products/
–India FY22 solutions.

• However, other sectors have become prominent in recent

years growing in similar areas of DE, specifically, BFSI, retail,
CPG, and health care. While BFSI, retail, and CPG sectors
comprise a small share of the market, health care consists
70-72%
of a significant share. All these sectors have one aspect in
Others
common, i.e., using DE creatively in both their operations and
final products/solutions. The India growth story for these
sectors is expected to be similarly significant.

The DE landscape in India is heavily correlated Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi,
with the historical evolution of traditional IT/ and Chennai, identified as mature tech hubs,
IT enabled Services (ITeS) industry. Several account for over 85 percent of the country’s
global companies are using India’s ER&D and total digital talent.2
software prowess to gain the unique advantage
of managing the entire product lifecycle from
one centre. Bengaluru and Mumbai have emerged as the
leading destinations for digital projects. While
Mumbai is the preferred location for global
The demand for digital engineering organisations, Bengaluru is the principal choice
professionals has consistently increased for companies of Indian origin.
over the years, with a sudden surge in
demand for digital skills, especially in the
areas of AI, data science, cloud computing, Across sectors, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi
information security, and blockchain. This are the most preferred choices. However,
is due to the expediting digitisation and Hyderabad and Chennai are gaining traction as
automation of businesses. BFSI and health care hubs.

2
https://www.thehindu.com/business/indias-demand-supply-gap-for-digital-talentexpected-to-rise-over-35x-by-2026-nasscom/article65056315.ece

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Factors that contribute to India’s rise as a Digital Engineering destination

Previously, with the labour arbitrage model becoming a cost-effective solution for multinational firms, India was looked at
as a destination for low-cost, outsourced software and support services. However, the evolution of delivery from India has
been swift, resulting in it becoming the technology and innovation hub for various global organisations.

1 Availability of key technologies

Disruptions, such as AI, cloud technology, blockchain, automation, IoT, have rapidly shaped an ever-evolving blueprint of how
businesses are conducted in India. The digital transformation journey of India has been accelerated by the entry of various
category-leading global players in the Indian market. These global behemoths are increasingly adopting digital strategies
across business functions, and utilising more sustainable and smarter ways to operate in the Indian market.

2 An unrivalled youth population

India ranks as one of the highest in the world in terms of the number of students graduating in science and engineering fields2.
The increased pool of graduates coupled with a maturing talent ecosystem is helping the growth of digital talent pool in the
country despite the talent churn.3

3 Encouraging regulatory environment

The Indian Government provides a three-year tax holiday in a block of seven years to encourage entrepreneurship. In addition,
financial support for startups through schemes, such as Credit Linked Capital Subsidy for Technology Upgradation (CLCSS),
which provides interest subsidy of 15 percent for a technology investment of up to 10 million4, is also provided. Other tax
breaks and benefits for micro and small enterprises have also been introduced.

4 Startup and R&D ecosystem

India is recognised for fostering a progressive startup environment. The innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology
ecosystem has significantly matured in the country, with India gaining the distinction of being the third largest startup
ecosystem with over 25000-26000 total Indian tech startups founded between 2011-21 and one of the fastest growing unicorn
ecosystems. This has created a diverse product-centric and technology-focused ecosystem.5

3
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/10/india-technology-development-silicon-valley/
4
https://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/india-current-population.html
5
NASSCOM Indian Tech Startup Ecosystem - Year of the Titans (2021)

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Sector in Focus: Banking,

Financial Services and
Insurance sector
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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Digital engineering footprint is observed across the BFSI value chain

Sector in Focus - BFSI

Payment
Retail SME Investment networks and Insurance Wealth Loans and
banking banking banking cards management mortgages

Account E2E expense Due Payment Risk Fund Paperless

management management diligence railroads management accounting application

Money Receivables Portfolio Fraud NFO Credit

Underwriting
transfers management analysis detection subscription assessment

Digital Pre- and Credit Premium Corporate Customer

Neo-Banks
lending post-trade assessment collections investment support
analytics

GST Cross-border Claims Account Fraud

E-KYC
invoicing Asset payments management reconciliation detection
management
activities
Cashless Inventory Tap to pay Compliance
payments management cards and risk
management

Tokenisation Digital
marketplace
for HNI
prospects

CRM
platforms

Utility services used across the value chain

KYC and Anti Money

Client Risk
Laundering (AML) Reconciliations
onboarding management
monitoring

Data and analytics

Expense Report Automatic P&L User access

management generation data backup analysis management

Examples of DE Hardware engineering Software engineering Hybrid engineering

Activities listed in black either do not have evidence of Digital Engineering, or are
outside the purview of this report
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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Growth in the sector can be seen across four unique themes

Growth themes

Description Indicative application areas/use cases

Smart algorithms and new-age • Processing Letters of Credit (LCs)

Intelligent technologies are being used by and cross-border payments by using
middleware companies to provide intelligent middle- blockchain

01
and back-office services, such as risk
• Assessing credit scores and likely
management and secured payments.
default rates in insurance using AI-
based algorithms

• Modelling complex customer

profiles for enhanced pricing accuracy
by using predictive analysis

Traditional banking operations are being • Banking services through mobile

Next-gen augmented with online financial services apps by digital banks
banking for retail and SME customers.
• Financial services, such as digital

02
lending, receivables management, and
traditional banking by neobanks

• Touchless banking using AI, speech,

and image recognition in bank
branches (for loan applications,
assessing credit card options or getting
the latest rates on various deposits)

Digital marketplaces provide a one-stop • Financial planning services to

Digital
platform with aggregated offerings, consumers through robo-advisors
marketplace
including wealth management and

03
• Zero-paper loan disbursement
insurance services, and are witnessing
process through platforms
greater demand due to availability of
better choices and better matching of • Wealth management platforms,
customer needs. portfolio management services
provide New Fund Offer (NFO)
subscriptions for High Net-worth
Individuals (HNI) investors and
aggregating investment options for
easy comparisons

Smart devices are gaining popularity in • Tracking telemetry data to aid in

Hardware the BFSI sector for relaying continuous insurance claims decisions by using
in BFSI and high-quality data to enable faster IoT devices

04
and accurate decisions.
• Remote property estimations
and analysis by using drones and
advanced imaging technology

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Smart algorithms and new-age technology to provide intelligent middle- and

back-office services

Use cases

01 Intelligent
middleware
End users
Banking institutions, insurance providers

Description
Digital Blockchain technology helps set up a secure environment in cross-border payments and issuance of LC. The
contracts blockchain network is an incorruptible digital ledger with a shared database, including digital signatures from
designated parties in the transaction with transparency that helps in binding contracts.

Smart risk Insurance companies are using smart algorithms powered by AI to predict default rates for customers by
profiling for tracking historical transactions of the client to predict future outcomes.
insurance
Data security Data pseudonymisation provides additional security to Personal Identifiable Information (PII) of customers
for sensitive by masking sensitive information, such as card details. Storage of such information has also been centralised/
card details limited to a few payment network providers.
Intelligent Intelligent underwriting workflows ingest complex documents, summarise profiles, and provide
underwriting recommendations on risk profiles to enable more strategic decision making in underwriting loans.

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

A Closer Look: Intelligent Middleware

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

SBI Indian Banks’ Blockchain Infrastructure Company • Error-free

Blockchain
Private Limited6 is a consortium of 15 banks including SBI, transaction
ICICI, Kotak Mahindra, Axis Bank. The consortium aims to
• Fraud prevention
Kotak use blockchain technology to solve multiple issues that exist
Mahindra with the issuance of LC. • Increased speed of
Bank operation
• Issues range from data entry errors, transaction
authentication errors, to fraud

AXIS Bank • Blockchain technology will reduce errors in capturing data

by creating a LC request through the data fed in by the
requestor, making it tamper-proof.
ICICI Bank
• The time involved in credit appraisal reduces due to the
digital transfer of the LC request from the beneficiary to
the advising bank. The advising bank receives and advises
the LC to the beneficiary.

• On acceptance, the beneficiary sets up a digital contract

between the two parties.

MasterCard Based on a recent directive by the Reserve Bank of India, • Enhanced data
Pseudonymisation
payment aggregators, online merchants, and wallets have security
removed sensitive card-related customer information,
VISA including full card details from cloud storage. Card
networks, such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and
RuPay will store these card details on their platforms using
RuPay a pseudonymisation technique7 that masks user card
details as random numbers.8 This provides protection of
PII data of the customer. Furthermore, the consolidation of
the data to a few payment aggregators provides additional
protection against fraudulent websites capturing this
information.

6
https://bfsi.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/banking/how-indian-banks-are-leveraging-blockchain-technology/88027231#:~:text=%22State%20Bank%20of%20
India%20(SBI,for%20providing%20various%20financial%20services.
7
grcworldforums.com/data-management/data-masking-anonymisation-or-pseudonymisation/12.article
8
https://www.thehansindia.com/business/payment-aggregators-gateways-merchants-not-allowed-to-store-customer-data-from-july-1-743910

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

TransUnion TransUnion CIBIL has a credit scoring model9 that provides • Better decision AI
CIBIL predictive insights into customer risk behaviour enabling making
loan providers to take strategic decisions. The CIBIL score
predicts whether a potential borrower is likely to default
based on borrower’s history.

Cognizant Intelligent underwriting tools provide use case • Increased speed of

AI
summaries to allow quick and easy review of insurance operation
applications.10 OCR technology reads complex documents
• Provided strategic
ARTIVATIC and assembles them into consistently formatted files.
insights into
Natural language processing aids in organising and Image
underwriting use
extracting data from the source documents and ML models processing
cases
interpret and assign scores to identify promising cases.

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

Banks move beyond brick-and-mortar establishments to provide online services

Use cases

02 Next-gen End users

banking Retail customers, small and medium
enterprise

Description

Digital With smartphones and internet penetration becoming ubiquitous, all major banks in India have a mobile app
banks catering to digital banking services, providing value added services in addition to traditional banking services.
Services include multi-lingual support, automation of recurring payments, controls on spend, and remote
blocking & unblocking of cards.

Neobanks Neobanks are a mobile app for digital banking, providing value-added services to retail customers and small
and medium enterprises. These offerings go beyond traditional services and include innovative products and
services, such as three-in-one cards, receivables management, and transaction analysis.

People-less Banks use AI-powered devices in branch operations to support customers in this form of new-age banking.
banking Services are provided without human intervention through the help of virtual customer care executives that
provide tailored solutions based on customer needs.

9
https://www.transunioncibil.com/product/cibil-score#:~:text=India's%20first%20credit%2Dscoring%20model,in%20the%20next%2012%20months.
10
https://artivatic.ai/

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

A Closer Look: Next-gen banking

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

HDFC Bank Banking mobile applications have digitised and automated • Heightened
Digital
traditional banking services. Apart from regular services, some customer
platforms
of the other features provided are as follows: convenience
ICICI Bank through a
• HDFC’s app provides a customisable quick access menu
completely digital
where users can avail their most frequently used services.11
experience
The app is also available in Hindi.
AXIS Bank
• Elevated customer
• iMobile by ICICI allows users to locate ICICI Bank ATMs,
experience through
check loan eligibility, and avail instant personal loans
value added
against their credit cards.12
services
• Axis Bank’s app allows users to schedule credit card
payments, convert credit card payments to EMIs, block
and replace cards, and set limits on debit card usage.13
Users can also set up directly, and request auto payments
of utility bills through the app, send emails and tweet
feedback directly and request calls from a support executive.
Payzello Neobanks provide financial services to both retail customers • Additional security
IoT
and small and medium enterprises. Innovative offerings and convenience to
include the following examples: customers through
Khatabook new innovative
• Payzello offers smart banking cards that come with security
offerings
features that allow users to lock and unlock the card in
scenarios where they misplace the physical asset.14 The • Ease of adoption Digital platforms
three-in-one card is a combination of debit, credit, and through multilingual
forex capabilities that allows users to switch between them support
based on requirements.
• Value added
• Khatabook provides financial services to merchants and services easing SME
the app is available in more than 10 languages.15 Merchants operations
can generate debit and credit reports, set up automatic
payment reminders, and receive 24*7 multilingual
support. It also provides a QR code that allows merchants to
send payment links and receive timely payments with
0 percent transaction fees.

11
https://www.hdfcbank.com/personal/ways-to-bank/mobilebanking/hdfc-bank-mobilebanking-app
12
https://www.icicibank.com/imobilecampaign/index.html
13
https://www.axisbank.com/make-payments/credit-card-bill-payments/pay-your-credit-card-bills
14
https://www.fintechfutures.com/2020/11/indian-start-up-payzello-combines-debit-credit-and-forex-into-one-card/
15
https://khatabook.com/blog/khatabook-app-features/

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

RBL Bank RBL makes use of smart screens to greet and serve • Elevated user
AI
customers on services, such as loan application and credit experience through
card assessments. AI-driven services

• Through hand gestures, a customer can navigate the smart

screen and select required services using this self-service
model.

• A camera mounted on the smart screen uses image processing

technology, studies facial expressions to gauge interest levels,
and recommends offerings based on reactions provided by
users.16

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

Spotlight17

Customer challenge
The client wanted to automate the manual regression testing of ATMs/kiosks,
which requires significant time and effort.

Solution
TCS created intelligent AI operations to read, understand, decode the test cases
and create an actionable plan in which every step could be executed through the
robots.

It automated regression testing by using Cognitive Test Automation Framework

(CTAF), which enables the physical robot with a vision to view and recognise the
device under test.

Impact
• Reduced the overall cost by 85 percent compared with manual testing
• Six times increase in throughput
• 50 percent reduction in testing cycle time
• Achieved ROI within 1.5 years

16
https://indiaai.gov.in/case-study/rbl-bank-uses-ai
17
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

23
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Digital marketplaces witness greater demand due to availability of aggregated

offerings and customised plans

Use cases

03 Digital End users

marketplace Retail customers, small and medium
enterprise

Description

Robo-advisors Robo-advisors are software products that assist in managing investments without the input of a financial
manager. The software uses an algorithm that drives financial planning services with almost zero human
supervision. Users can access this digital wealth management platform through web-connected devices.

Zero- Digital platforms have enabled online loan disbursement through a zero-paper process. Using e-verification
paper loan procedures and online application submissions, loans are processed and disbursed through online banking and
disbursement financial service providers.
process

Wealth Wealth management platforms provide NFO subscriptions HNI investors and aggregate investment options for
management easy comparisons, thus providing analysis across investment portfolio, enabling HNI investors to take informed
platforms, decisions.
portfolio
management
services

A Closer Look: Digital Marketplace

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Scripbox Robo-advisors such as Scripbox offer risk profiling and • Better decision-
AI
goal-based insights to their customers based on personal making enabled
investment targets.18 by AI-powered
recommendations
• Scripbox provides portfolio analysis of user holdings to
gauge portfolio health and provides recommendations to • Comprehensive
optimise the portfolio. view of funds in a
single place
• It also offers thematic portfolios designed according to
sectors or investment philosophies.

18
https://scripbox.com/blog/algorithmic-or-human-based-advice-what-works/

24
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Fullerton Fullerton India is one of the many lenders who provide a • Increased speed of Connected
India zero-paper loan disbursal process.19 operations systems
• The requestor can determine the maximum loan amount • Reduced error due
they are eligible for using a personal loan eligibility to a completely
calculator. digital process

• The requestor then files an online loan application and

submits documents for e-verification to close the
process.

Paytm Paytm Money has launched PMS Marketplace for HNI • Better decision- Digital
Money Investors in partnership with PMS Bazaar, a Portfolio making enabled by plaforms
Management Services (PMS) advisory startup.20 fund analysis

• The marketplace offers key parameters for each scheme, • Comprehensive

such as total assets, inception date, benchmark and fund view of funds in a
manager details, performance across history, and against single place
benchmarks.

• HNI investors can reach out to fund managers available

through the platform for investment advice.

• The marketplace uses data to provide a 360-degree view

under one roof.

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

19
https://www.fullertonindia.com/personal-loan-disbursement.aspx
20
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/stock-markets/paytm-money-launches-portfolio-management-services-marketplace-for-hni-investors/
article37820096.ece

25
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight21

Customer challenge
The client wanted an omnichannel money transfer platform.

Solution
HCL developed a digital platform to provide an omnichannel, cross-border,
cross-currency money movement experience. HCL implemented DevOps with
open-source tools for reduction in time-to-production. The platform integrates
with mobile, web and retail partners and third-party digital platforms (wallets) to
enable external payment across geographies.

Impact
• Highly rated app
• Reduced time-to-market, three times frequency of global roll outs (40+ roll outs)
• Reduction in cost, 28 percent increase in costumer registrations and more than
5 million new app downloads

Smart devices in the sector enable faster and accurate decisions

Use cases

04 Hardware in
BFSI
End users
Insurance providers

Description

Telematics Usage-based Insurance (UBI) adjusts the payable premium for a policy based on the usage of the
insured product or service. In auto insurance, UBI is referred to as telematics, which is an amalgamation
of telecommunication and informatics. Telematics tracks, stores, and transfers driving related data to
understand the driving behaviour and model customised pricing based on driver profiles.

Drones in Usage of imaging technology, high-quality images enable accurate assessments and help in fraud mitigation.
insurance Drones can also access locations affected by natural disasters where human access is difficult, thus reducing
claim travel time to affected sites and overall risk for the insurer.
settlement

21
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

26
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

A Closer Look: Hardware in BFSI

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Leading Leading insurance company provides ‘Drive Smart’ that • Promoted safe
IoT
Insurance fixes vehicle insurance price during policy renewals based driving practices
Company on usage details.22
• Lowered premium
• A ‘DriveSmart’ device installed in the vehicle transmits for risk-averse
driving summary and driving patterns, including over drivers as compared Drones
speeding, changing gears incorrectly, and rash driving. with risk-taking
drivers
• Statistics provided will include time spent in driving,
distance travelled, likely fuel consumption, and amount
saved through good driving practices.

• A one-touch call feature allows users to call for support

in the event of an emergency or a breakdown.

Agricultural Technology integration in crop insurance is being strongly • Increased speed of

Image processing
Insurance promoted by the Government of India. claims settlement
Company of
• According to the Union Budget of 2022, Kisan Drones • Increased accuracy
India Limited
will be used to provide crop assessments, which are in claims settlement
already deployed to serve other agricultural needs. The
Agricultural Insurance Company of India Limited is
exploring this option.23

• Agricultural insurance sectors use drones for efficient and

trustworthy data. They capture the damages that have
occurred for the right estimation of monetary payback to
the farmers in a shorter time span.

• Imaging technology in drones enhances the accuracy of

claims in calamity situations where human intervention is
not possible.

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

22
Company website
23
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/farming-gets-hi-tech-sauce-kisan-drones-set-for-takeoff/articleshow/89284749.cms

27
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight24 AXA

Customer challenge
AXA was looking to reduce the manual effort in authentication and estimation of
settlement claims.

Solution
Insurance products are becoming increasingly modular, covering specific risks that
the customer is exposed to. Aside from automating the claims processing activity,
AXA uses drone technology and computer vision to determine the authenticity of
claims in large risk/calamity situations. The India GCC is working on training the
model through image labelling and maintaining the algorithms in production.

Impact
• Improved internal processes by automating time-consuming tasks
• Increased speed and accuracy of claims’ settlement

24
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

28
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Sector in Focus: Health care

29
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Health care is expected to continue to be one of the top segments driving growth in DE

Medical Wellness Medical Health

devices Pharmacovigilance monitoring institutions Pharmacies insurance

Product Health and Symptoms Prescription Plan

Discovery vitals
development checking verification development
monitoring

Drug Appointment Prescription

Manufacturing At-home care Underwriting
formulation scheduling drug
and recovery disbursement

Control group Patient

Assembly Wellness Administration
creation admission
services

Provider
Testing Trials Consultation contract
management

Distribution Corrective Diagnostic

and sales actions tests Claims
management

Clinical
Training
procedure

Maintenance Prescriptions

Payments

Data and analytics

Enterprise data Reporting and 24*7 Electronic health Data privacy and Patient
management dashboards monitoring records security interaction

Examples of DE Hardware engineering Software engineering Hybrid engineering

Activities listed in black either do not have evidence of Digital Engineering, or are outside
the purview of this report

30
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Growth in the sector can be seen across three unique themes

Growth themes

Growth themes Description Indicative application areas/use cases

Medical Medical manufacturers are utilising • Additive manufacturing of surgical

manufacturing additive manufacturing and robotics devices, surgical guides, and custom
to build medical devices that assist in aids

01
surgical procedures and bio-print human
• Personalised surgical planning
organs.
based on patient anatomy by using
robotic arms for surgeries

• Bioprinted organs, tissues, surgical

implants

• Training workers involved in medical

device manufacturing using AR-based
solutions

Hospitals of the Medical institutions use IoT and AI/ML • Tracking health indicators using
future to deliver remote care and monitoring smart wearables
services.

02
• Tracking vitals through remote home
monitoring devices

• Remote care solutions in hospitals

that trigger alarms during critical
readings

• Medical diagnosis, decision making,

and administrative activities using
AI-based solutions

• Health insurance plan selection in a

VR environment

Connected health has become • Bridging the gap between health

Connected ubiquitous with a gamut of offerings care providers and patients through
health across the entire patient lifecycle. teleconsultation and e-diagnostic

03
services on digital medical platforms

• Error-free and verified medicine

disbursements through digital
prescriptions

• Delivery of prescription drugs

to a patient's doorstep through
connected pharmacies

31
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Medical manufacturers use additive manufacturing and robotics to build medical

devices for assistance in surgical procedures and bioprinting human organs

Use cases

01 Medical
manufacturing
End users
Surgeons, medical researchers, testing

Description

Additive 3D printing of surgical devices, surgical guides, and custom aids provide surgeons a superior operating
manufactur- experience with heightened performance and better patient outcomes. Surgical guides based on individual
ing patient anatomy help in performing precise incisions. 3D printed models assist surgeons in pre-operative
planning by allowing them to simulate the procedure before operating on the patient.

Robotic aids Smart robotics capture 3D visualisations of Computed Tomography (CT) scans of a patient’s anatomy to
aid surgeons in creating a customised operating plan. A guidance system using haptic technology directs
surgeons on drillings per requirements, such as preserving soft tissues or saving healthy bones.

Bioprinting Bioprinting is an additive manufacturing process that uses a digital file as a design to print an object layer by
layer using cells and biomaterials. Digital files are based on CT and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans
that act as an input to the printer. The bioprinter has a cell-laden bio-ink cartridge that prints the structure
based on the design. Post printing, the structure is treated with UV or ionic solutions to stabilise them.
Organs, tissues, and implants bioprinted using 3D printing technologies aid in regenerative operations.

Biosensors Biosensors are the most important component in most of the point-of-contact diagnostic devices. The
biosensor detects and analyses with the help of a detector based on physicochemical reactions that are
recognised by a biorecognition element and transformed into a readable signal.

AR-based Augmented Reality (AR) finds relevance in the shop floor to train workers. The technology is being used in
solutions cross-training shop floor workers to help them manufacture medical devices that demand specialised skillsets
and greater precision. Design steps are captured digitally and relayed through hardware, which provides an
immersive training and guidance experience to new employees at a lower cost. Virtual simulations help in
achieving faster training completion rates as they can be repeated multiple times in a shorter time.

32
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

A Closer Look: Medical Manufacturing

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Next big • Trevima is a customisable 3D bioprinter that allows • Reduced testing

3D printing
innovation the use of a variety of biomaterials and cell types due to material costs
labs the customisation feature of the product such as nozzle
diameters, speed of printing, and automation.

• Innoskin HE, a 3D bioprinted human epidermis

developed by NBIL is used for pharmaceutical, cosmetic,
and chemical testing purposes.The product is expected
to provide alternatives in testing material in chemical
and cosmetic formulations, reduce operational costs of
gathering testing material and ensure integrity in the
structure of the testing material.25

Stryker The SmartRoboticsTM system, MAKO, developed by Stryker, • Customised 3D printing

provides CT-based 3D modeling pre-operative planning solutions for
features.These features allow surgeons to preplan a patients through
patient’s implant position while considering the patient’s precise planning
individual anatomy. Surgeons can visualise the bone, joints, and accurate drilling
tissues, and component relationship to detect the risk of leads to better
potential impingement. A robotic arm powered by haptic outcomes
technology uses this customised plan to guide surgeons to
perform precision drillings.26

Roche Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostic devices developed by • Low-cost diagnosis

Biosensors
Roche Diagnostics India have aided in the early detection
• Rapid turnaround of
of coronary heart disease and checking cholesterol
test results
levels.These portable point of care systems support spot
diagnosis, assessment and monitoring of a patient’s
condition through biosensing. A cassette with a patient’s
blood sample is fed into the device, which analyses the data
and provides a near instant diagnosis.27

25
https://nextbiglab.com/innoskin/
26
https://www.stryker.com/us/en/joint-replacement/systems/Mako_SmartRobotics_Overview.html
27
https://diagnostics.roche.com/in/en_gb/about/about-roche-diagnostics-india.html

33
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

US-based Vuforia Expert Capture AR technology alongside • Reduced training

software Leading cloud computing company's product presents costs AR/VR
company crucial assembly steps and processes involved in building
• Expedited training
Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator Systems (RMVS).
This is transferred, edited, and relayed through wearable • Ensures higher
equipment to the shop floor workers and not the traditional employee safety
medical device manufacturers. This reduces training lead
times and avoids potential transmission of COVID-19 by
placing ‘virtual’ smiths on the shop floor.28

ANATOMIZ Predesigned surgical guides based onto the patient’s • Reduced operating
3D printing
3D anatomy and 3D printed for surgery help surgeons perform time
precise incisions and bone drillings at pre-defined locations
• Reduced cost of
and angles.29
surgeries

• Better patient
outcomes

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

28
https://businesscloud.co.uk/news/augmented-realitys-vital-role-in-ventilator-production-push/
29
https://anatomiz3d.com/

34
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight30

Customer challenge
More comprehensive information can lead to better patient outcomes. However,
accessing siloed patient data across health care enterprises is a challenge, and the
cost of integrating the data increases as enterprises grow. Also, while radiologists
are overwhelmed by the growing number of patients, the increasing demand for
imaging, and explosion in the volume of imaging data, their time is consumed by
complicated routine reading tasks and manual workflow steps combined with
complex navigation across tools with inconsistent user experience. Further, to
generate reports, radiologists need to manually extract and aggregate data from
multiple tools, which is time consuming, inefficient, and error prone. Reducing
effort is key to optimise radiology service delivery.

Solution
Siemens Healthineers developed an Outcome-Driven Imaging and Information
System, which is a future-proof, data-driven imaging and IT system that drives the
best possible outcomes for patients. The system provides one place where data
can be turned into knowledge to enable better patient outcomes by managing
data around patients, not departments. In typical clinical pathways, patients have
several touch points with different clinical departments. To make the correct
diagnosis and therapy decision, it is essential that the patient data remains open
and always accessible from one spot.

Impact
• Clinicians: Simplified workflows make data more manageable, so clinicians benefit
from more knowledge without the fear of more data.
• IT: Lower total cost of ownership by reducing the complexity of the IT landscape
with fewer servers and no translation tools.
• Patients: Get the most transparent and comprehensive treatment available.

30
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

35
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight31

Customer challenge
The customer wanted to improve bio-vaccine production efficiency and throughput.

Solution
Tech Mahindra built a plant process digital twin to monitor real-time status of the
vaccine production across three stages and predict quality deviation so that timely
corrective action is taken.

Impact
• Reduce batch rejection and improve throughput from 30 percent originally to 80
percent.

31
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

36
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Medical institutions make use of Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence/

Machine Learning to deliver remote care and monitoring services

Use cases

02 Hospitals of the End users

future Fitness enthusiasts, medical institutions,
patients, insurance seekers

Description

Smart Smart devices have gained traction in the fitness and wellness verticals, with applications ranging from vital
wearables monitoring, personal care to recreational activities, such as sports. Smart wearables track vitals, sleep cycles,
physical activity, and relay data to a mobile application. The applications interpret the input data using ML
algorithms to recommend changes to regular activities for improved performance and health.

Remote Remote monitoring devices for at-home patient care have seen rising growth in a post-pandemic world.
home Coupled with AI, these IoT devices track vitals, relay them on a platform that is monitored remotely, and alert
monitoring care providers on adverse symptoms.
devices

Remote care Remote care solutions at medical institutions provide ICU-like care through light-weight portable devices
solutions that track vitals of patients round the clock, feed data to a platform monitored by doctors, and alerts in
cases of adverse health patterns. Moreover, predictive analytics can alert doctors of the potential health
complications when vitals replicate patterns of historical illnesses.

VR customer VR platforms of health insurance providers deliver an immersive experience to customers allowing them to
experience navigate through offerings and select customised solutions.

37
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

A Closer Look: Hospitals of the Future

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Leading Leading medical device manufacturer specialises in remote at- • Monitors real-time
IoT
Medical home care. With a partnership with American Megatrends India vitals
Device Pvt. Ltd, the company makes use of B.O.L.T. – a portable health
• Provides preventive
Manufacturer monitoring device to collect health statistics ranging from blood
health care
pressure to temperature from at-home patients. The data is used
to design customised treatment plans and alert the care provider • Provides at-home
during scenarios of spikes in vitals. The care provider monitors care
this data over an app on a real-time basis and proactively
intervenes in case of deteriorating health signs.32

India-based The Remote Monitoring System, an IoT vitals monitoring • Real-time vitals
health care platform, empowers doctors to continuously monitor monitoring IoT
service a patient’s vital signs, such as the seven-lead ECG, heart
• Provides preventive
provider rate, respiratory rate, pulse rate, SpO2, non-invasive blood
health care
pressure, and posture. Working in the Chest Sensor, Bedside
Monitor, and Central Station Monitor provide ICU-like care
to the patient in a non-ICU setup. Through the continuous
monitoring of vitals, the device increases patient safety by
sending an alert to doctors and nurses about changes in
a patient physiological status even in the absence of the
clinical team in the patient’s room.33

PNB MetLife With the help of a VR Headset, customers can use conVRse, • Enables superior
AR/VR
an experiential VR platform, to enter a 3D simulated customer
room. In this virtual setup the customer interacts with a experience
virtual insurance manager called ‘Khushi’ assisting clients
to browse, assess, customise, and select insurance plans,
manage claims, and provide other services in the spectrum
of insurance. The platform is built in collaboration between
MetLife’s Singapore based incubation hub and PNB MetLife
in India.34

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

32
Company website
33
Company website
34
https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/corporate-news/how-pnb-metlife-leverages-virtual-reality-based-convrse-platform-to-improve-customer-
services/57042367

38
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Leading Smart Smart wearables are growing in popularity, especially with • Monitors real-time
Wearable fitness enthusiasts. Smart watches help stay connected health IoT
Manufacturing through texts, calls, reminders, and alarms. These devices
• Connected devices
Company" are also equipped with gender-specific functionalities, such
provide value added
as a menstrual tracker for women taking personal care
services
beyond regular workouts.35

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

Spotlight36

Customer challenge
The client lacked a vendor-agnostic, connected device platform for the ease of
capturing and aggregating patient data. They also faced higher clinical trial subjects
dropouts due to lack of remote patient monitoring infrastructure, leading to the
inability to scale and onboard larger clinical trial participation.

Solution
TCS developed a scalable clinical trials platform driven by IoT, wearable devices,
and cloud-powered data analytics. The platform delivers a patient-centric
experience while lowering trial costs, and helps in capturing and managing data
seamlessly across any clinical environment. The core functionality of the platform
is to meet the demands of digital site connectivity and virtual trial engagements.

Impact
• Cost reduction by 60 percent per subject compared with current practice of onsite
clinical trial methods
• Integrated 10,000 device units and 500+ providers in the clinical trial ecosystem
• Increased recruitment rate and diversification by making trial participation more
convenient
• Redistributable apps and functions enable quick onboarding with infinite
scalability

35
Company website
36
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

39
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight37

Customer challenge
A health care client intended to provide clinicians with remote access to data from
hemodynamic monitors to improve clinical workflow and response time for critical
care.

Solution
Wipro developed a cloud-based remote access platform with centralised secure
data exchange to provide end-to-end patient monitoring and insights for
critical care. By enabling remote access to non-invasive data from connected
hemodynamic data monitors, the platform serves as a supportive visual aid to
clinicians and provides visibility across the patient care activities, thus improving
communication with peers.

Impact
• Continuous access to patient insights
• Multi-patient view
• Tracking patient’s progress through a smartphone

37
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

40
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Connected health has become ubiquitous with a gamut of offerings across the
patient lifecycle

Use cases

03 Connected End users

health Safety authorities, health care providers,
patients

Description

Intelligent In pharmacovigilance, case processing is a fundamental activity. It provides data to analyse the adverse
workflows in effects that allow detection of new safety concerns and periodical assessment of the benefit-to-risk ratio
pharmacov- associated with the use of a pharmaceutical product. Intelligent workflows work well in case of management
igilance use cases. They ingest hard-copy documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), automate routine
steps and manual checks to improve accuracy and reduce the processing time.

Digital During the pandemic, telemedicine and wellness apps have risen in popularity, and generated substantial
medical subscription to these services. Telemedicine apps provide scheduling, consultation, and diagnostic services.
platforms Wellness apps range from fitness sessions, dietary recommendations, dietician consultations, and food
delivery.

Connected E-pharmacies made use of the e-commerce wave to provide verification, sourcing, and delivery services of
pharmacies over-the-counter drugs, prescription medication, and health drinks and supplements. Moreover, value added
services, such as prescription verification, alternative suggestions for medicines in cases of stockouts, and
diagnostic test bookings are also available through these apps.

A Closer Look: Connected Health

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Oracle Safety One Intake solution aids safety case management • Reduced case AI
use cases. Designed by Oracle, the platform automatically ingestion time
structures and ingests safety source documents, easing the
• Reduced processing
time taken to create new cases. A smart user interface and
time
algorithm in the platform enables signal evaluators to take Connected
more accurate decisions by curtailing false positives. Finally, • Evaluation of systems
the case management workflow uses built-in features to accurate signals
automate routine steps and reduce manual work, cutting
down processing time.38

38
https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/industries/life-sciences/safety-one-intake-solution-brief.pdf

41
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Leading Digital platforms are bringing the spectrum of personal • At-home wellness Digital
Health and health and wellbeing to the customer’s living room. From service platforms
Fitness providing workouts, meditation, dietician sessions to
• Personalised fitness
Company delivering healthy meals and selling fitness gear, the “super
reports
app” is garnering subscribers post-pandemic. On-app
analytics tracks progress, provides performance reports,
and establishes badges for milestones achieved, gamifying
the fitness journey. Motion technology tracks body
movements to calculate the calorie burn and performance
during workout sessions.39

Practo Teleconsultation is bridging the distance between • At-home

health care providers and patients through appointment consultation and Digital
scheduling, teleconsultation, and e-diagnostic services. diagnostics platforms
The Practo app provides diverse teleconsultation services,
• On-demand
such as on-call doctors, specialised treatments, general
caretakers
consultations to the booking of lab tests and surgeries, and
patients now do not need to visit caregivers. Moreover, • Digital prescriptions
with the help of insurance provider partners, the app also prevent errors in
allows users to browse and select through multiple health communication
insurance offerings.40

PharmEasy Through its telemedicine model, PharmEasy has set up • Prescription

connected pharmacies. The app provides on-demand, home verification Digital
delivery access to a wide range of prescription, over-the- platforms
• At-home medicine
counter drugs, and other health care products. Moreover,
delivery
the app provides prescription consultations with on-call
doctors, on dosage, alternative medicines, and verification
of prescription legitimacy and services, such as remote lab
test bookings.41

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

39
Company website
40
https://www.practo.com/healthfeed/teleconsult-its-importance-in-daily-life-40994/post
41
https://pharmeasy.in/about-us

42
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight42

Customer challenge
The client is a hospital chain situated in an urban location that wanted to increase
its reach to rural regions with minimum capital investment on infra.

Solution
Tech Mahindra developed a a telehealth platform for teleconsulting and
diagnostics:
• Patient portal to search for doctors, book appointments, pay fees, upload
medical records, video consultation, and prescription
• Doctor portal to manage schedules, see records, remote consultation, prescribe
and refer
• Paramedic portal to support clinical care management process

Impact
• Improve hospital outreach to remote and rural locations
• Improved data accessibility and diagnostics

42
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

43
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight43

Customer challenge
The customer wanted a medical data platform.

Solution
CARE is a powerful software framework that has the necessary foundation for
building the next-gen medical multi-tenant software/services faster. It can be used
to build both edge/gateway applications as well as scalable cloud application. HCL’s
CARE was the platform of choice for building the medical data platform for the
customer. It provides several pre-built functionalities for medical software, rapid
development of microservices, and enables cloud automation using softwares,
such as Jenkins, Terraform, ARM, and Ansible.

Impact
• Resulted in 10 repositories, 60+ microservices, secured vaults, 40-60+ build/
release pipelines, and 5 builds per microservices per day
• Reduced Kubernetes management efforts by more than 40 percent; Helm charts
increased deployment rate to two times
• Reduced cloud infrastructure cost of pre-production environments by US$2,500
per month

43
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

44
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Sector in Focus: Consumer

Packaged Goods/Retail sector

45
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Growing Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail segments in Digital Engineering space

Customer,
Integrated Marketing channel and Distribution
business and brand category Strategic Manufacturing and Innovation
planning strategy development procurement and operations transportation and R&D

Demand Marketing Competitor Needs and Production Transporta- Ideation and

planning strategy and customer spend, supply scheduling tion manage- creation
development opportunity market ment (fleet
identification analysis management,
Supply Materials transport Product
Brand mission management planning)
planning designing,
statement Segment Procurement developing,
creation performance strategy and testing
review (based creation Inbound Warehouse
Go-to-market
on KPIs) logistics management
strategy
Brand/product and order Design
development
pricing Supplier coordination validation/
Product/ evaluation and improvement
Production
Brand and service sales selection
category Advertising strategy Fulfilment
opportunity strategy development and logistics Prototype
development Supplier Outbound strategy development
negotiation logistics development
Net revenue Customer/ and
management Marketing channel contracting
promotions investments Maintenance, Order
and budget quality processing,
allocation Value control, and returns/recalls
Gap tracking sanitation management
identification management
and handling
Dispute
management
Implemen-
tation and
commercial
benefit
tracking

Data and analytics

Customer and
Inventory, Master data Inbound and
competitor Production and Spend
procurement, and and document outbound logistics
research and quality reporting analytics
supplier reporting management reporting
analytics

Examples of digital engineering Hardware engineering Software engineering Hybrid engineering

Activities listed in black either do not have evidence of Digital Engineering, or are
outside the purview of this report

46
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Growth in the sector can be seen across three unique themes

Growth themes

Description Indicative application areas/use cases

Companies are increasingly taking • Supply chain control tower – A

Performance advantage of AI/ML-driven centralised hub for shipment tracking,
optimisation applications, which brings together inventory visibility, monitoring process

01
data from all parts of the value chain to compliance
enable better decision-making using data
• Demand prediction across product
analytics.
segments to ensure smooth
procurement and prevent shortages

• Route planning and order

prioritisation using analytics and AI

Companies are building smart factories • Monitoring machine performance

Industry 4.0 that use connected equipment to through data collected by IoT sensors
optimise efficiency and productivity. and digital twins

02 • Predicting and monitoring error

patterns by use of big data analytics
to undertake predictive maintenance

• Producing and material handling by

use of robots

• Simulations to identify best

operational conditions and optimise
materials management

• Adopting additive manufacturing/3D

printing to reduce material wastage
and efficiency

Customer Companies are utilising AR and VR to • Offering more product information

experience personalise the marketing and sales by equipping product packaging with
and brand experience, and also to connect better AR features. This also supports a
recognition with customers. companies’ ethical and sustainability
initiatives

03 • Allowing consumers to virtually

experience deeper parts of a brand’s
identity through virtual tours by
employing VR technology

47
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Harnessing insights from customer behaviour and production helps in advancing

end-to-end performance

Use cases

01 Performance
optimisation
End users
Supply chain executives, suppliers, distributors

Description

Supply Chain Supply chain control towers are designed to provide deeper end-to-end visibility across supply chain starting
Control from procurement of raw materials, logistics, manufacturing, distribution, and finally sales.
Tower They often include a central dashboard of data with views into key business metrics and events.
Typical examples of supply chain control tower include:
• Logistics/transportation control towers
• Fulfilment control towers
• Inventory control towers
• Supply assurance control towers
• End-to-end supply chain towers

Use cases

01 Performance
optimisation
End users
Strategy and planning teams

Description

AI-powered Demand forecasting is traditionally a type of predictive analytics in which the process of projecting client
demand demand is examined using historical data. Using AI, businesses can make use of ML algorithms to predict
forecasting changes in consumer demand as accurately as possible. These algorithms can recognise patterns, discover
complex relationships in massive datasets, and detect demand fluctuations automatically.

48
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

A Closer Look: Performance Optimization

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

SmartLinks SmartLinks is a definitive Software as a Service (SaaS) • End-to-end visibility AI/ML

platform for logistics and inventory planning. Acting as a across supply chain
centralised hub, it provides services, such as digitalised partners
documentation, vehicle management, real-time tracking,
• Early warning alerts
and financial reconciliation using ML models. It also has
and exception IoT
provisions for 360-degree dashboard to track relevant
management
business KPIs, which enables informed decision-making
process.44 • Predictive and
prescriptive decision
support

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

Spotlight45

Customer challenge
The client was looking for a robust digital data governance system for ensuring data
quality and completeness for net-zero emissions management.

Solution
TCS built an end-to-end carbon management solution for net-zero pledge
from multiple departments– procurement, logistics, processing, packaging, and
distribution. The custom solution leveraged components and frameworks of TCS
ENVIROZONETM with a robust governance system for ensuring data quality and
completeness.

Impact
• 10-20 percent reduced carbon footprint and offset costs
• Substantial long-term savings (>US$100 million)
• Industry-first auditable carbon management system to drive visibility
• GHG data disclosure for geo/suppliers/brands

44
https://www.smartlinkstech.com/saas-platform/
45
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

49
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight46

Customer challenge
The client wanted to improve field service operations of geographically distributed
beverage dispensers through real-time remote monitoring solution.

Solution
Tech Mahindra enabled beverage dispenser sensorisation (embedding different
sensors within a device) and designed cloud-based application to remotely
monitor status and diagnose the health of geographically-distributed beverage
dispensers. This connected dispenser model additionally monitors the quality and
quantity of drink served.

Impact
• Reduced equipment maintenance cost by four times
• Improved the consistency across all dispensers
• Enhanced customer experience

46
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

50
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Industry 4.0 initiatives lead the innovation charge through applications of new-age
technology

Use cases

02 Industry 4.0 End users

Manufacturing and production teams, shop floor
employees, end customer

Description

ML-powered IoT sensors sends real-time data about machine run-time, productivity, etc., to a cloud database that feeds a
digital twin digital twin, a computer-generated model that mirrors the physical operation of each machine. This model is
then provided as an input to subsequent AI/ML model which, based on all the above parameters, predicts the
the likelihood of machine breakdown.

Visual Automated Visual Inspection (AVI) solutions are used to detect defects and other irregularities in
inspection manufactured products. Deep learning networks are trained with labeled examples of specific types of
AI data to extract common patterns in manufacturing and then leveraged across supply chain for segregating
products that do not follow this theme.

AMRs and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) use IoT sensors to track, interpret, and co-deliver the inventory across the
Cobots warehouse. The data from IoT sensors regarding inventory levels of various items across the warehouse are
fed into AI/ML algorithms, resulting in better demand and supply planning.

3D printing/ 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) enables precise and fast fabrication of a physical part, model, or assembly
additive process. This entire process consists of the following two steps:
manufactur-
• The objects are digitally defined by CAD software, which slices the 3D object into thin layers for precise
ing for cre-
printing and manufacturing process.
ating rapid
prototypes • Additive manufacturing uses this smaller slice to direct hardware to deposit material, layer upon layer, in
precise geometrical shapes.

51
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

A Closer Look: Industry 4.0 - Retail

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

IBM IBM Maximo Visual Inspection and the Maximo • Reduced cognitive
AI
Application Suite is used to detect and correct defects load for operators,
in product quality in manufacturing contexts at the edge. less slippage in
It provides intelligent asset management, monitoring, defects monitoring
maintenance, and reliability on a single platform. 47
• Low effort in
starting up

• Adapts to product
changes

• Runs autonomously
on-premises

IT service IT service provider builds AI-enabled warehouse • Increased order

provider automation robots for businesses. Its AI-enabled accuracy Robotics
software called GreyMatter integrated into the robots
• Increased
to communicate with other robots, and with the central
productivity
system, creates continuous feedback between the
algorithms in the software and the real-time operations on • Reduced labour cost
the floor. The company offers two products - Butler, a fleet
• Improved employee
of mobile robots for moving materials in the warehouse,
experience
and Sorter - a fully automated sortation system to sort and
divert outbound packets.48

Imaginarium Imaginarium, a Mumbai-based startup, is amongst • Flexible design

3D printing
India’s largest rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing
• On-demand printing
centres, catering to industries such as jewelry, architecture,
and consumer goods. It offers complete solutions from • Reduced labour cost
3D-printed prototypes to customised mannequins, tooling,
• Minimised waste
molds, and even low series production of fully functional
and time to market
parts.49

47
https://www.ibm.com/cloud/architecture/architectures/use-maximo-visual-inspection-to-detect-mfg-defects/
48
Company website
49
https://imaginarium.io/about-us/

52
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Leading The company's Digital Twins IoT platform enables • Reduced risk of Digital twins
Cloud users to create a digital representation of real-world accidents
Computing things, places, business processes, and people. By taking
• Helped businesses
Company advantage of AI/ML and data analytics, end users can
predict uncertainties
gain insights about the various bottlenecks in production
process, areas where the process can be optimised, and the • Incorporated AI/
maximum capacity at which machines can be operated to ML and IoT to speed
prevent breakdowns.50 up the production
process

• Cost-effective and
helped plan better
products through
stimulations

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

Spotlight51

Customer challenge
The client wanted to improve the productivity of the babycare line by optimising
the FTE count and automate the existing manual process to eliminate errors due to
manual handling of raw materials.

Solution
TCS in partnership with TEAL (Titan Engineering and Automation Ltd), designed,
developed, manufactured, tested, and deployed a smart machine with an
automated cobot for pick and place system, rotary folding, vacuum folding and
controlled drop system to automate the existing process.

Impact
• Cost savings of 21 FTE/day across shifts
• Improved operational efficiency resulting in no manual interventions
• Achieved target quality and performance level

50
Company website
51
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

53
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight52

Customer challenge
A multinational food manufacturing company was looking for a user-centric digital
engagement and dynamic decision-making platform.

Solution
Wipro’s S.M.A.R.T. (Sustainable, Monitored & Managed, Automated &
Autonomous, Reliable & Resilient, and Turnkey) manufacturing framework
provided intelligent physical automation, seamless orchestration of operational
technology and IT, digitalisation of operations, and dynamic decision-making
enabled by real-time data analytics.

Impact
• On-time supply increased to 98 percent
• Yield improved by 5 percent
• Equipment efficiency improved by 5 percent
• Product quality improved by 3 percent

52
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

54
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Customer centricity has become a strategic priority in guiding innovation in the

Consumer Packaging Goods sector

Use cases

03
Customer
experience and End users
brand recognition End customer

Description

AR embed- AR packaging helps brands in relaying information quickly and clearly through 3D content, which in turn leads
ded product to a better customer experience.
packaging

VR-based Companies use AR/VR apps for better customer experience by giving them virtual tours of the entire
instore and manufacturing process of their products. This makes the customer feel more connected with the brand,
factory which leads to higher product purchases.
experience

55
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

A Closer Look: Customer Experience and Brand Recognition

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Leading Leading packaging company provides augmented reality- • Increased customer

AR/VR
Packaging based innovative packaging solution. It offers a wide range engagement
Company of packaging solutions from its specialised plants, such
• Flexibility and
as cartoon-based (barcodes are printed on the packaging
adaptability to
material and scanning them provides details of the product
change IoT
explained by cartoon characters) and flexi material-based
packaging solutions.53 • Virtual space for
communication and
information sharing

• Cost effective

Avataar Avataar provides a 3D-based AR/VR platform for • Increased customer

AR/VR
personalised product visualisation. Its online platform helps brand loyalty
companies convert 2D image of any product into 3D model,
• Unique shopping
which can be used by end customer to visualise the product
experience through
in their environment.54
innovation

• Virtual space for

communication and
information sharing

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

53
Company website
54
https://www.avataar.me/
56
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight55

Customer challenge
The client wanted to centralise the new websites on a cloud-based platform for
higher flexibility.

Solution
HCL developed a self-sustaining digital transformation platform for supporting
the client’s legacy and new websites on a modern cloud-native solution to
provide flexibility to the business. The platform enabled centralised solutions for
500+ brands and their internal websites across multiple business functions and
geographies. It provided standardisation and control on the content and UI/UX of
the websites.

Impact
• Faster onboarding on new brand website
• Improved customer engagement
• Reduced cost of development and support
• Standardisation across websites/application landscape

55
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

57
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Growth in the Retail sector is witnessed across two unique themes

Growth themes

Description Indicative application areas/use cases

Retailers use robots, sensors for • Tracks out-of-stock merchandise

Smart stores inventory management, and in-store using retail robots, which clicks
logistics operations. There is greater pictures of shelves and available

01
focus on enhancing the overall customer products, digitise the information, and
experience using AR/VR and smart convert them into metrics
mobile applications.
• Alerts for product replenishment
through sensors installed below
product shelves

• Platforms for customers to place

their orders through multiple
channels, track shipments on a real-
time basis, and scroll through product
catalogs through digital kiosks

• Assists in customer profiling through

in-store smart beacons and offers
customised discounts on products

• Directs customers towards

products of their choice through
recommendation engines

• Provides customers ‘virtual’ trials

on clothing through virtual trial rooms
and interactive mirrors

Integrated Companies have built interconnected • Tracks online and offline

business networks using data from multiple transactions for stores, sales data,
planning systems to generate insights about and connect with customers (email
customer behaviour patterns and marketing, loyalty programmes) by

02
increase sales. synchronisation of retail point of
service systems

• Better demand-supply planning

and product segmentation through
customer behaviour analysis across
stores using IoT sensors and emotion
AI

58
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases

01 Smart stores End users

Store executives, end customers

Description

Robots and • Retail robots track out-of-stock merchandise by clicking pictures of shelves and available products, digitising
sensors for and converting the information into measurable metrics for better inventory planning.
inventory
• IoT sensors are installed below product shelves and generate alerts for product replenishment.
manage-
ment

Omnichan- • Smart applications/virtual stores provide platforms for customers to place their orders through multiple
nel presence channels, track shipments on a real-time basis, and scroll through product catalogues.

• Digital kiosks help the customer scroll through available list of products, the shelf location, and payment
mechanism in a particular store.

Virtual • A virtual fitting room allows shoppers to try on items without touching them. It works by overlaying an item
fitting on a live video feed of a customer that allows them to see the size, style, and fit of any item before making
rooms and the purchase.
interactive
mirrors

Smart • Smart beacons in stores detect customers through their smartphone and store app, assists in profiling
beacons for them, offers customised discounts. Customers are also supported with recommendations on products of
customised their choice in specific aisles through recommendation engines.
offerings

59
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

A closer look at smart stores

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

Ace Turtle Ace Turtle is a provider of a mobile-commerce-as-a-service • Low customer

Automation
platform for businesses. It offers an omnichannel platform acquisition cost
with modules to monitor online orders, payments, rewards,
• Increase in
and loyalty programmes. It also has an integrated business
operational
intelligence module to provide regular insights and reports
efficiency
on sales and customers based on geography, product AI/ML
categories, etc.56 • Improvement in
inventory turnover

• Increase in sales

DATAMATICS Datamatics enables retailers to cross-sell and up-sell • Increase in order RFID sensors
products through strategically aligned beacon systems accuracy
throughout retail stores as well as telecom-enabled SMS-
• Increase in
alerts in ring-fenced geographically dispersed areas. Using
productivity
purchasing history along with pattern mining, advanced
analytics, and AI / ML algorithms, Datamatics also enables • Reduction in labour
retail and ecommerce clients to position bundled offers to cost
their customers.57
• Improvement
in ecosystem
experience

India-based India-based IT consulting & services company has • Reduction of ‘out-of-

IoT
IT consulting developed smart shelves, which are wireless inventory stock’ products
& services control systems installed with weight sensors. The weight
• Locate products
company sensors can be built on or installed under shelves and
easily
consistently notify the back-end system about the existing
quantity of items on the shelves. These wireless devices use • Better utilisation
RFID tags and readers to scan the products in display and of in-store human
stock shelves and alert store associates when product levels resources
are running low.58
• Control and monitor
the usage of high
value items

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

56
https://www.aceturtle.com/solutions/
57
https://www.datamatics.com/industries/retail
58
Company website
60
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

TRUPIK Trupik provides cloud-based fitting solutions to brands • Convenient and

and retailers. Its software, Trupik Connect, is a mobile faster shopping AR/VR
application where the customers can virtually drape clothes experience for
on 3D replicas of themselves by feeding in specifications.55 customers

• Lower product
return rate

• Greater inventory
turnover

• Increase in customer
satisfaction

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

Spotlight60

Customer challenge
The client wanted to provide its customers with best in-class shopping experience
through AR/VR solutions.

Solution
Tech Mahindra developed an AR-based virtual showroom application for end
customers to experience the product’s presence in their own kitchen. The
following features made it more customer centric:
• Product presentation at real scale to check the better fitment in space
• User can configure the colour, check key features, and different models

Impact
• Reduced sales cycle time up to 30 percent
• Enhanced customer buying experience

59
https://www.india.com/technology/hyderabad-based-startups-trupik-connect-app-lets-you-try-clothes-in-3d-before-buying-1894720/
60
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions

61
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight61

Customer challenge
The client wanted to digitise the touchpoints with their customers, increase their
sales, and provide a better customer experience.

Solution
GlobalLogic developed an omnichannel strategy addressing touchpoints between
customers and store associates. The solution enabled digitisation of the store
experience by creating an end-to-end design, development, testing, and rollout
of a customer facing mobile app, iPad-based store kiosks, mobile payment, digital
wallet, and loyalty platform.

Impact
• Increase In digital channel revenue (app revenue) by 860 percent
• Increased order conversion rate to 3 percent
• Improved user experience and engagement

61
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions
62
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases

02
Integrated
business End users
planning Store executives, strategy and planning teams

Retail growth theme: Integrated business planning

Description

End-to-end Companies are building interconnected networks using data from multiple Point of Sale (POS) systems – this
connected includes data from sales, customer’s touch points during product purchase, interactions across multiple
system for distribution channels, and overall service quality. This helps in better decision making and increased revenue.
better deci-
sion making

AI-based IoT sensors and AI-based transistors collect data related to customer reactions when they purchase different
emotion products, which in turn helps with better demand-supply planning and product segmentation.
capturing
for customer
behaviour

A closer look : Integrated Business Planning

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

GOFRUGAL GOFRUGAL’s POS software is a cloud-based POS designed • Increase in

AR/VR
for retailers. Its cloud-based integration platform helps in operational
collating sales, in-store service experience, and product efficiency
purchasing behaviour data from multiple ERP systems.
• Increase in
It also provides inbuilt AI/ML and big data analytics
inventory turnover IoT
functionalities for end users to generate valuable insights
from the data.62 • Better customer
experience

• Increase in overall
revenue

62
https://www.gofrugal.com/retail/features/
63
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Use cases Description Benefits Core technologies

ENTROPIK Entropik’s emotion AI technology captures a user’s facial • Better customer AI/ML
TECH expressions and tracks their eye movement to provide experience
insights to brands and retailers as to how a buyer is
• Better demand
responding to a certain packaging or product placement
forecasting
in a retail environment. The solution enables retailers to IoT
get aggregated responses from consumers in a self-service • Customised
dashboard on a real-time basis.63 products, marketing
offers leading
to increase in
customer’s brand
loyalty

Leading Leading software & technology company specialises • Better assessment

AI/ML
Software & in automotive AI and advertising research. With the of consumer
Technology customer’s consent, it uses emotion AI technology behaviour
Company to capture macro and micro facial reactions to an
advertisement. This allows a company to know what people
think of their advertisements and to know their purchase
intent after watching an advertising video.64

Source: Deloitte analysis, company websites, secondary public sources

63
https://www.techcircle.in/2021/06/16/how-entropik-s-emotion-ai-platform-is-helping-offline-retailers-woo-shoppers/
64
Company website
64
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Spotlight65

Customer challenge
A global personal care and cosmetics company wanted to improve customer
experience and develop products based on consumer preferences/choices.

Solution
As a strategic partner to the client, Wipro’s solution aimed to achieve three major
objectives – comprehensive platform development, industrialisation of IoT, and
real-time data analysis. Their solution ensured integration of data from multiple
ERP systems, which helped in customisation of products based on customer
choices and various other factors including geographical, demographical, and
behavioural factors. It created a provision of supply chain control towers, which
increased the visibility of the supply chain as well.

Impact
• Reduced time to market
• Customised products on demand
• Reduced the number of KPIs to be monitored from more than 200 to less than 40

65
Spotlight company challenges and solutions are based on primary discussions
65
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Go-to-market strategies
for Digital Engineering for
ER&D companies

66
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

In this Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) world, ER&D companies are adopting various strategies to digitally
transform their organisations, boost growth, and stay competitive. Two key aspects to achieve are having the right talent and
collaborating and co-creating with various entities.

Talent Alliances, collaborations, and co-creation

Strategies for hiring Co-creation programmes

right talent with startups

DE capabilities in Collaboration with

demand academia

Strategies to increase
homegrown digital talent

67
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Businesses have adopted a slew of strategies to address their requirements for relevant talent

“Siemens Healthineers has adopted a ‘Build-Buy-Borrow’ model. ‘Build’ refers to the approach of hiring digital talent
from universities and training them on the domain and specific technologies. ‘Buy’ refers to the hiring of experienced
professionals with specialised tech skillsets and domain know-how. ‘Borrow’ refers to ramping up quickly by utilising
ESPs' ability to scale through their wide reach to vast talent pools. Based on the criticality, competencies, and capacity, we
take a decision to build, buy, or borrow.”

of the surveyed workforce66 in India has said that they need more digital skills. This
echoes the sentiments of industry leaders.66 67
95%

"While not having explored partnering with academic institutions, GlobalLogic focuses on lateral hiring and collaborating
with more channel partners to build its digital talent"

25%
of the business leaders in India say they are outsourcing their digital technology
management 66 67

A leading global
conglomerate

With new hires, the most challenging aspect is translating technology skills into domain knowledge and industry-specific
application areas. Upskilling and reskilling have become paramount if companies want to build the right talent pool in
their organisations.

of the surveyed workforce would require re-skilling on continual basis, as has been
re-inforced by organisations globally 66 67
60%

66
Source – Draup - India’s Tech Industry Talent: Demand Supply Analysis; STEM graduates include Science
(Chemistry, Biochemistry, Medicine, etc.), Technology and Engineering, and Mathematics
67
Source – Wheelbox – India Skills Report & Deloitte analysis

68
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Companies’ DE hiring needs comprise a varied combination of technical capabilities, including

knowledge of programming languages and platforms.

Digital Engineering capabilities in demand*

AI / ML / Big data IoT Automation Cloud Cyber 5G 3D

DL analytics computing security printing

Python Oracle DBMS Python Python Python Python Python Python

Java PL SQL C++ Perl JavaScript JavaScript JavaScript C++

R Scala JavaScript Java PowerShell C++ C, C++ G-Code

C++ SQL MySQL .Net Docker SQL NOMA OpenGL

Autodesk
DialogFl Snowflake TensorFlow Shell AWS HTML SQL
CAD

Spark Hadoop RasberryPi Ruby Azure VmWare Matlab ControlX

TensorFlow SalesForce AWS Zoho VMware CyberArk Qualcomm SolidWorks

PyTorch Azure Azure Atlassian Oracle McAfee Google Meshlab

AWS AWS ThinkWorx BluePrism SalesForce Palo Alto Ringcentral

GCP GCP UI Path GCP Crowdstrike

Automation
Azure Symantec
Anywhere

High demand capabilities in Programming/

Platform
a specific DE tech. vertical computer language

*Based on Deloitte’s analysis of the current demand market

69
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Strategies aimed at increasing homegrown digital talent at entry level

The New Education Policy of 2021 (NEP) has the potential to be transformational for the Indian education
system. With infrastructure support for vocational learning, emphasis on native language, innovative
education centres to bring dropouts into the mainstream, and tracking of students and their learning levels,
NEP facilitates a pathway to professional learning involving both formal and non-formal education modes.68

Most organisations highlight the lack of digital talent while undertaking digital transformation activities.
To help fill this void, enterprises are increasingly turning to collaborating with colleges and universities
through innovation labs aimed at solving real-world problems and internship programmes aimed at
developing digital skills.69

Cisco Networking Academy and the National Skill Development Corporation have partnered to enable free access
to an industry-relevant digital curriculum. Future Ready Talent is a virtual internship platform for students with an
opportunity to learn the in-demand technology skills and work towards solving real-world problems.70

Building alternate talent pools – Other means of acquiring digital expertise, especially in smaller towns
and amongst more women should be encouraged to join the workstream with hybrid work norms. For this,
corporate social spending should be used.71

Government initiatives, such as Digital India, FutureSkills Prime and Skills India have been undertaken to create a
digitally empowered economy. To enable small businesses access digital skilling resources and online training assets,
organisations such as leading cloud computing company and Google have launched their respective programmes.72

68
Based on the AWS APJ Digital skills survey of over 1,000 India workers
69
https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/the-war-for-digital-talent-india-can-emerge-as-a-global-hub-for-it-11632847335532.html
70
https://blogs.cisco.com/csr/cisco-networking-academy-launches-free-it-education-to-empower-all-people-with-career-possibilities
71
https://futureskillsprime.in/blog/staying-relevant-in-the-new-normal
72
https://futureskillsprime.in/blog/how-indias-demographic-dividend-can-add-2-percent-to-its-gdp-every-year
70
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

External ecosystem alliances for Digital Engineering have grown exponentially with the startup
boom in India

Co-creation models and incubator/accelerator programmes

In the DE space, organisations are rapidly embracing consortium and coopetition approaches to address industry
challenges, innovate, and generate new revenue streams. Many companies are collaborating with their competitors
to combine their core capabilities with those of a partners’ technology/expertise.

In addition, the growth in digitalisation over the past few years has driven the need to innovate, putting even more
of a spotlight on corporate-startup engagement. India has witnessed a steady increase in startup accelerator and
incubator programmes, with companies realising the need to innovate to stay ahead of competitors and disruption.
Through such collaborations, startups also benefit from corporate fundings, resources, and data and customer
access.

Recent achievements of Indian startups73

70 unicorns 42 unicorns +US$24.1 bn 61%

Active in India in 2021, the Tech startup ecosystem Total equity investments Of total investments raised
third largest in the world received a major boost raised by Indian by unicorns in 2021
with a cumulative valuation with the addition of 42 startups in 2021
of startup ecosystem being unicorns in 2021
US$320-330 bn

73
NASSCOM-Zinnov Indian Tech Startup Ecosystem – Year of the Titans – Edition 2021
71
The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Examples of collaboration and incubator/accelerator programmes in India

Multinational investment bank

The accelerator programme launched by multinational investment bank is Catalyst. Catalyst is a 12-week programme
for innovation experts, technology startups, fintechs, funds, and academic institutions to co-create Minimum Viable
Products (MVPs) with in-house design experts. The chosen MVPs get converted into contracts after the acceleration
period. Catalyst has completed 6 editions, accelerated 69 startups, and addressed 72 business challenges identified
across the bank. Currently, the bank is focusing on new startup locations such as Pune, Cochin, Trichy, and Coimbatore.
The upcoming challenge areas revolve around cybersecurity, open banking automation, payment, and risk platforms.74

Siemens Healthineers

Siemens Healthineers involves physicians and technicians in the product development lifecycle through early
engagement. This is done during concept building and performing product trials to use their domain expertise.75

Multinational IT consulting & service company

Multinational IT consulting & service company invests in early to mid-stage enterprise software startups across
US, Israel, and India (currently has investments across 16 startups). The focus is on investing in cybersecurity, app
development, data, cloud infrastructure, and automation with specific emphasis on health care, BFSI, and IT domains.76

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB)

IPBB launched Fincluvation, a joint initiative to collaborate with the fintech startup community to co-create and
innovate solutions for financial inclusion. The platform works with startups to develop solutions aligned to tracks, such
as creditisation, digitisation, and any market-led solution that can help solve problems relevant to IPPB in serving its
underserved customer.77

Multinational med-device and health care solutions company

India Edison Accelerator programme creates strategic partners to co-develop health care solutions. The company’s
focus is on technology solutions for streamlining health care delivery across verticals including advanced imaging and
visualisation, remote patient monitoring, virtual hospitals, and point-of-care diagnostics.78

NATHEALTH, TiE Mumbai and IQVIA

‘Reimagining Health Care: Industry-Startup Interface Series’, aims to strengthen co-innovation between health
care startups and industry members and accelerate the process of establishing an accessible and technologically
advanced health care infrastructure in India.79

74
Company website
75
https://www.siemens-healthineers.com/en-in/medical-imaging/asset-lifecycle-development/clinical-performance-companion
76
https://m.economictimes.com/tech/software/wipro-announces-150-million-second-venture-fund/articleshow/73305149.cms
77
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1818635
78
Company website
79
http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=140702&sid=2
72
 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Leading Cloud Computing Company

Under the AI Innovate initiative, startups get to partner closely with engineering and product teams to build their
core AI models. Selected startups receive access to industry and technology deep-dive sessions, AI masterclasses by
experts, and mentoring by startup founders and industry leaders.80

TCS

TCS launched its CO-Innovation Network (COIN), which brings together experts from startups, research, academics,
and corporate worlds to work on collaborative innovations for TCS. The network provides startups an access to TCS’
accounts and affiliated investors, such as VCs, angel investors, and corporate venture capital.81

Target

The Target Accelerator Program (TAP) is a four-month-long programme that focuses on creating transformative
solutions for retail sector. Since it was launched, 30 startups have graduated from the programme. In the past five
years, the programme’s core focus has been using cutting-edge innovations, such as AI, 3D, and AR, and to act as a
testing ground for startups to develop, scale, and test their products in a live retail environment, and has played a key
role in contributing to the growth of the startup ecosystem in India.82

US-based retail company

US-based retail company Innovation Labs’ programme CONSTRUCT, is collaborating with deep technology companies
of all sizes and at all stages. Seven Indian startups, representing diverse interests including AI-driven trend forecasting
and automated content generation, have joined.83

HDFC

HDFC partnered with IvyCamp to host Finnovation, a startup engagement programme for innovative tech startups
to test and scale solutions targeting property assessment and customer servicing. Startups have an opportunity to
access knowledge, infrastructure, and support from HDFC and undertake business transformation projects through
technology.84

Kotak

Kotak Payment Co-creation programme collaborates with startups in the digital payments sector. Selected mature
fintech startups received access to mentorship, co-create payment products with Kotak’s Innovation Lab and an
opportunity for a pilot launch.85

India-based life insurance company

India-based life insurance company Innovation Labs 2.0 selected four partner startups to capitalise on emerging
technologies and co-develop solutions in the areas of non-invasive medical tests, digital twins, intelligent data
acquisition, and health and wellness through targeted programmes.86
80
Company website
81
https://www.tcs.com/tcs-cointm#:~:text=To%20identify%20such%20opportunities%20for,for%20TCS'%20Fortune%201%2C000%20customers
82
https://targetaccelerators.com/
83
Company website
84
https://ivycamp.in/finnovation
85
https://inc42.com/buzz/kotak-mahindra-nasscom-fintech-startups/
86
Company website

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Examples of select startup partnerships

BFSI

BoB Federal U Gro

CreditAI CredAvenue IDBU
Financial Bank Capital

BoB Financial has partnered The post-transaction U GRO Capital and IDBI
with CreditAI to launch Unnati fulfilment services of the have entered into a co-
credit cards for farmers to Federal Bank for asset and lending agreement to finance
enable and trace agricultural mortgage-backed securities underserved MSMEs. IDBI
credit. Credit AI uses AI and were performed manually and makes use of U GRO's digital
ML to generate credit score of evaluation of asset quality technology platform and online
farmers, which increases the was conducted quarterly. marketplace that facilitates
scale and scope of lending to Through this partnership, co-origination of loans or
small farmers.87 Federal bank will be able to purchase of assets.89
use CredAvenue’s AI engine for
real-time evaluation and digital
monitoring.88

Health care

Leading India-based
digital health care myHealth-
Roche PharmEasy Thyrocare Health Quad ekincare
therapeutics service care
company provider

Roche partnered India-based health Through the The collaboration

with Leading digital care service provider partnership, the would allow Ekincare
therapeutics company product integrates offline aspects of to introduce new
to offer Accu-Chek blood pressure and ECG Thyrocare are tied to products, such as
Active, an AI-based devices, where vitals the online platform of health financing, lasik
digital diabetes are monitored using AI PharmaEasy to create surgery, or infertility
coaching solution.90 tools and exceptions are an integrated digital treatment financing93
reported in real time91 platform92

87
https://bfsi.eletsonline.com/bob-financial-and-creditai-launch-co-branded-credit-card-for-farmers/
88
https://bfsi.eletsonline.com/federal-bank-credavenue-partner-to-offer-portfolio-management-of-its-securitization-book/
89
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/sme-sector/idbi-bank-u-gro-capital-ink-a-co-lending-agreement/articleshow/86675778.cms?from=mdr
90
Company website
91
Company website
92
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/pharmeasy-to-acquire-66-stake-in-thyrocare-in-rs-4500-crore-deal/articleshow/83842616.cms?from=mdr
93
https://www.peoplematters.in/site/interstitial?return_to=%2Fnews%2Ffunding-investment%2Fekincare-raises-15-million-in-funding-led-by-healthquad-sabre-
partners-33227

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

CPG / retail

Shoppers Reliance Addverb

Unicommerce Ace Turtle Fashinza
Stop Industries Ltd Technologies

Unicommerce empowers Reliance and Addverb Fashinza executes big-

brands of Shopper’s Stop have co-created and delivered volume orders giving Ace
with a technology platform automated warehouses for Turtle access to end-to-end
to streamline their supply JioMart's grocery business95 production from design to
chain and deliver products delivery through its technology
efficiently 94 platform96

Core enabling technology

Digital Embedded Cloud

ML
platform software computing

AI Analytics Automation Robotics

94
https://www.cxooutlook.com/unicommerce-and-shoppers-stop-join-hands-to-streamline-post-purchase-journey/
95
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/reliance-retail-buys-54-stake-in-addverb-tech-for-132-million/articleshow/88971287.cms
96
https://bwdisrupt.businessworld.in/article/Fashinza-Announces-first-ever-fashion-collaboration-with-Ace-Turtle/31-08-2021-402507/

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Digital Engineering companies play a valued role in co-creating digital-specific education

programmes and running innovation challenges

Collaboration with Academia

Multinational IT consulting & service company

Indian Institute of Science97

• Wipro and IISc developed a research centre called Multinational IT consulting & service company IISc Research
and Innovation Network (WIRIN). The aim is to conduct advanced applied research in areas of autonomous
systems, robotics, and 5G. Professors and research teams from IISc and engineers, developers, architects, and
researchers from the autonomous systems, robotics and 5G domains at Multinational IT consulting & service
company constitute the team at WIRIN

• Focus is on R&D of technologies in AI, ML, visual computing, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), etc.

HCL

IIT Kanpur98

• HCL is collaborating with C3i Hub at IIT Kanpur, a specialised cybersecurity research centre. The teams will
develop a security framework and solutions for cybersecurity challenges in the current and future operational
technologies and for managing cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and risks for critical infrastructure.

• HCL will also collaborate with IIT Kanpur to identify selective research projects to bring them to scale. These
projects will be tested using international benchmarks for potential commercialisation.

Philips

Manipal University 99

• Philips & Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) are collaborating to improve patient care in
India. Projects include a non-contact health screening kiosk, assessing the vital parameters of patients in a safe
and contactless manner, AR/VR Virtual Lab to serve as knowledge hub, and a platform to facilitate seamless
interaction between partner teams.

• The team will also collaborate on IntelliSpace Precision Medicine Oncology Platform to enable patient-centred
precision care in oncology.

97
https://www.wipro.com/newsroom/press-releases/2019/wipro-collaborates-with-iisc-for-advanced-research-and-innovation-in-autonomous-systems-robotics-
and-5g/
98
https://www.hcltech.com/newsfeed/hcl-signs-mou-iit-kanpur-strengthen-capabilities-fields-cybersecurity
99
https://medical.thehighereducationreview.com/news/manipal-academy-of-higher-education-mahe-strengthens-collaboration-with-philips-nid-1629.html

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Multinational investment bank

NMIMS100

• Multinational investment bank & NMIMS collaborated on research for impact-based finance solutions.

• As a part of a PhD research sponsorship programme, scholars from NMIMS’ School of Business Management
(SBM) will receive support from Multinational investment bank to conduct research on developing blended finance
(strategic use of development finance for the mobilisation of additional finance towards sustainable development)
as a tool to support various social enterprises.

• The focus will be research on value chains providing access to health care, water, energy, to develop long-term
revenue-generating solutions to help the country achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

TATA Consultancy Services

GITAM (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY)101

• This collaboration between TCS and GITAM is focused on co-developing academic programmes/degrees in
the university. The degrees are BSc in Computer Sciences (Cognitive Systems) and BCom in Business Process
Management.

• The intent is to bridge the gap between academia and industry, and thereby enhance the employability of the
emerging workforce.

• The programmes concentrate on the latest digital technologies and cloud skills. Remote internship opportunities
were offered to provide students with practical knowledge and hands-on experience.

Source: Secondary research and company websites

100
Company website
101
https://telanganatoday.com/gitam-collabs-with-tcs-lvpei-to-launch-industry-oriented-courses -:~:text=GITAM%20collabs%20with%20TCS%2C%20LVPEI%20to%20
launch%20industry%2Doriented%20courses,-By%20Telangana%20Today&text=BSc%20Computer%20Sciences%20(Cognitive%20Systems,with%20LV%20Prasad%20
Eye%20Institute.
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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Challenges to future
growth of Digital
Engineering in India

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

DE is expected to form a substantial part of ER&D enterprises. It is expected to play a crucial role in government and industry
alike, whether it is used for planning or decision making, accelerating solution development, discovering new trends or new
product creation. India is on the verge of becoming a DE leader; however, some hurdles remain to be overcome to ensure faster
and better adoption of technological changes for DE.

Finding the right Data protection Patents and IP Digital Policy and
talent and privacy protection infrastructure regulatory gaps

Finding the right talent

• India’s demand for digital talent jobs is ~8X larger than its entry-level talent pool, at present. By 2024, this demand is
expected to grow to 20X. While technology talent is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18% over the same period, the demand
for digital skilled talent is increasing at a CAGR of 35%. This demand supply gap is already driving higher cost to find talent for
ER&D enterprises

• Other concerns include high attrition (a global concern), low quality of talent, and the lack of domain knowledge.
– High attrition forced companies to mitigate the issue by increasing salaries and offering hiring bonuses. As organisations move
up the value chain, this poses a conundrum in terms of running the business cost effectively, while retaining and investing
in high quality talent.
– On average, employability rate ranges from 30-40 percent of the entry-level talent. This differs on the skillsets that companies
are looking for. The World Economic Forum report (2020) also mentions that “skills imparted to our youth during college
education become obsolete by the time they enter the industry.”
– While various national level skill development programmes (e.g., Skill India, NSDC) offer courses and content in emerging
technologies, there is still a need for initiatives focusing on domain/industry-specific knowledge and application of technical
skills. While the state and central governments are trying to address this gap along with businesses, employers continue to
spend significant time and resources on reskilling and upskilling programmes to make fresh hires future- and industry-ready.

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Data protection and privacy

• Data sharing is complicated as it has multiple limitations due to privacy concerns by the database owners and end-user
corporations. Businesses undergoing digital transformation collect, store, and transmit huge volumes of personal data
electronically. Business users worry about storing sensitive data, such as invoices, bills, and client documents, on technology
platforms without adequate protection, which poses multiple risk implications for data breach and privacy violations.

• This creates challenges for India to operate as a DE destination102 given that it globally ranks third in terms of the number of data
breaches, with an estimated total of 86.63 million breaches until November 2021.

• The government has tried to address some of these challenges pertaining to cybersecurity attacks leading to increasing costs of
complying with these regulations for businesses.
– The Data Protection Bill of India that is in the works is one such example. The bill is premised on a centralised Data Protection
Authority having a wide discretionary remit to formulate regulations. The bill imposes restrictions on data transfer (particularly,
‘critical’ data transfer with the authority defining the definition of ‘critical’), which might hinder India’s abilities to serve global
businesses. The bill may need to be revised to comply with international data protection practices.
– A new regulation was announced in May 2022, wherein the government has the right to ask VPN companies to maintain personal
data of VPN users for five or more years. This could render VPN services illegal in India if service providers don’t comply,
hampering business users in the process.

Patents and IP protection

• While there have been significant improvements in patent laws and regulations in India, more initiatives are still needed
by enterprises.
– The potential threat of patent revocations, lack of presumption of patent validity, and the narrow patentability criteria under
the India Patents Act pose problems for companies across different sectors.
– The share of Indian residents’ total patents filed in the country stands at 36 percent, whereas the average in other largest
economies stands at 62 percent; most of the patent applications are done by non-residents in India.

• India is on the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR’s) ‘Priority Watch List’ for lack of adequate protection of the
rights of American companies.
– Some of the concerns include innovators not being able to receive, maintain, and enforce patents in the health care/
pharmaceutical sector, concerns over copyright laws not incentivising the creation and commercialisation of content, and
somewhat archaic trade secrets frameworks.
– Other concerns are regarding difficult patentability criteria for pharmaceutical patents, effective system for protecting against
the commercial use/disclosure of data to obtain marketing approvals for pharma products.

102
https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/story/india-ranks-third-in-global-data-breaches-in-2021-report-315750-2021-12-15
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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Digital infrastructure

• To fuel the digital movement in India, the physical infrastructure needs to be developed:
– Power distribution remains a challenge due to concerns in cost-reflective tariffs, complexity of tariff determination, and
delays in payment of subsidy amounts, and dues by state governments.
– Spectrum availability in Indian metros is about a tenth of the same in cities in developed countries. This has led to concerns
regarding provisions for high-speed data services.
– Public Wi-Fi penetration can be improved. Globally, there is one Wi-Fi hotspot for every 150 citizens. For India to reach that
level of penetration, over 8 million hotspots are required, of which only about 31,000 hotspots are currently available.

• The government has announced many new initiatives, including Digital India, Make in India, Startup India, and innovative
applications of Aadhaar, such as JAM (Jan-Dhan Yojana-Aadhaar-Mobile trinity) and digital lockers; efforts towards their
implementation need to accelerate.

• To emerge as a leading innovation hub, India needs to increase its R&D expenditure. Currently, it is 0.7 percent of GDP, which
is lower than the 1.5-3 percent of GDP spent by the top 10 economies. Support from domestic enterprises in increasing their
R&D investments needs to be intensified in addition to the central government’s higher contribution to GERD (Gross Domestic
Expenditure on R&D)

Policies and regulatory gaps

• India has complex and multi-layered requirements for establishment and incorporation of companies. For example,
requirements regarding presence of a local director, legalisation of foreign documents (where a foreign company intends
to incorporate in India) and prior government approval (if investment is from a restricted country) make the overall process
complex. This makes it difficult to get the necessary clearances for setting up a DE centre.

• The World Banks’s Ease of Doing Business103 report highlights some of the other challenges, which needs to be worked on to
establish the country as a leading destination for DE:
– India ranks 115th amongst 190 countries on the ‘paying taxes’ parameter in Ease of Doing Business Index affecting
investments.
– Simplication of contract enforcement needs to be addressed. The average time to enforce a contract is 1445 days, ranking
India 163rd on the ‘enforcing contracts’ indicator.
– It takes ~4 years to resolve a commercial dispute in India, which needs to be expedited for organisations undergoing rapid
technological advancements.104, 105

• Simplifying legal processes for hiring foreign labour will enable global companies to set up more delivery centres in India, thus
prompting greater growth of and collaboration with global corporations. High import tariff rates specifically for electronic
components and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) goods, amongst other hardware components need to be
addressed. Currently, flexibility in hanging tariff rates between bound and applied rates introduces uncertainty in importing
goods.

103
World Bank Ease of Doing Business report (2020)
104
https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/688761571934946384/pdf/Doing-Business-2020-Comparing-Business-Regulation-in-190-Economies.pdf
105
World Economic Forum Report (2020) as reported in a FutureSkills blog in association with NASSCOM (https://futureskillsprime.in/blog/India-2030-vision-of-
assessments-in-creating-a-skilled-nation)
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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Conclusion
Best practices that can be adopted by the industry

Consistently, industry leaders have observed a theme of increasing investment in DE endeavours and the need for developing
the talent base to match the growing demand. However, there are key elements that have helped centres in India – both GCCs
and service providers – in developing their value proposition globally, thereby traversing the journey of becoming global business
partners and leaders in the DE space.

To grow in the DE space, companies can consider the following:

Connect both hardware and software to take a product to market - It is no longer possible for DE
companies to be purely software- or hardware-driven. Every software product is eventually consumed
through multiple form factors/hardware devices, whether it is smart phones, laptops, or smart TVs.
Similarly, hardware products now generate many gigabytes of data, which is the cornerstone of DE.
Companies need to build their value proposition similarly, i.e., understand the UI/UX aspect on the
software side and the form-factor issues on the hardware side and combine them to offer a robust
solution.

Utilise technical skills considering functional/industry knowledge - Industry know-how in the

DE workforce along with the right technical skills is becoming increasingly important to develop DE
applications from a customer experience lens. While there is a need to develop competencies end-to-
end in the DE lifecycle, i.e., from concept to manufacture, it is imperative to develop a varied workforce
across subject matter and industry/domain experts, product/project managers, and technology
experts.

Develop workforce as well as the physical work environment - There is a need to further expand
the building of innovation labs in India for the purpose of design, testing, simulations, environment
compliance, etc. Collaborations between the central and state governments with industry players to
set up such labs will help in solving problems in real-world complex systems.

Make use of domain fungibility when developing solutions - There are significant domain overlaps
across sectors in DE. For instance, imaging algorithms for medical purposes can also be used in cars
for ensuring passenger safety and both originated from innovations in defense equipment. Companies
need to share their expertise from the product world into the engineering space; and for many
successful DE companies, this collaborative approach has long been part of their value proposition.

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 The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

Connect with us
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP

Keerthi Kumar Sumeet Salwan

Partner, Consulting Partner, Consulting
Email: keekumar@deloitte.com Email: sumeetsalwan@deloitte.com

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Contributors
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP NASSCOM

Sabina Bhadrish S.M. Madhusoothanan

Shailee Raychaudhuri Vandhna Babu

Harshith Bhat

Anamitra Sengupta

Arvind Verma

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

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The Future Growth Sectors in Digital Engineering

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