Tata group's innovation targets remain the same: Gopichand Katragadda

I consider myself and my team as a start-up, says Gopichand Katragadda, CTO, Tata Sons

The Tata-Mistry boardroom battle might have created disruption at several of its group companies, however, one area that has remained untouched is the work of groups innovation hub under Gopichand Katragadda, the first chief techhnology officer at Tata Sons who heads Group Technology & Innovation Office. In an interview at the sidelines of Software Exports Association of Pune's sixth conference on innovation and start-up, he tells Shivani Shinde Nadhe about Tata Sons' innovation targets, the setting up of incubators and what has happened in the past two years. Edited excerpts:

Has the boardroom battle impacted the role and targets of the innovation road map at Tata Sons?
 

Tata groups-accelerated innovation targets remain the same. 

It has been two years since you joined the group, how has the ride been so far?

We are in pilot stages for our factory safety wearables. It’s completely being developed and tested out, and data are streaming in from our plant in Jamshedpur. We’re looking at the entire ecosystem, which includes what makes factory floor workers want to wear these wearables, what kind of work they want to be constantly streamed about, creating a feedback mechanism and finding the usage of this to the factory and to the worker, and balancing it out with privacy and other issues.

We’re looking at the entire ecosystem. The hardware and software was done in a short span. For backend, we’re using TCUP or Tata Connected Universe Platform, which is provided by Tata Consultancy Services. The algorithms for this have been created by my team along with other group companies like TCS, Tata Elxsi, Tata Communications and Tata Steel. The hardware was designed by my team.

We have also built a drone-based pesticide spraying system, and it is in pilot stages. So far, we can do spraying at automated stage. The factory safety wearable, one of the applications, is for factory floor workers. It is difficult to predict when exactly it will hit the market but will not be longer than a year. The work on graphene is still going on. 

Would wearables that will be launched only be targeted at group companies?
 

We'll first commercially make it available within the group companies. This is because we want to understand its commercial viability and we will also look at taking it outside. We are already working with some partners. Some of the group companies that will find this useful will be Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals and Tata Motors. 

How do you look at your role within the Tata Sons? How do you ensure that there is an intersection of all the work happening within the group companies and Labs?
 

I consider myself and my team as a start-up. A start-up with a lot of ability to invest. Other than my team, we also have designated people of group companies working with us at our Bengaluru lab. 
 

We, along with Tata Industries, are also incubating newer businesses for the group at this centre. So far, we have launched three business — an e-commerce company Tata Cliq, Tata IQ which are on big data analytics, and Tata Digital Health. These are funded from within the Tata Group and led by Tata Industries. 
 

For intersection, one of the things we have done is that I have challenged every group companies to an annual innovation event called Innovista, and one category will be on this. Also, we are investing ourselves into new tech like graphene and also working with Tata Steel and IIT-Madras on this.  

Any challenges or hurdles that you have faced over these two years while working with group companies?
 

Each environment has its own challenge. At Tata’s, each company has signed an MoU with us, while they operate in an independent manner. Of course, it took a long time to get those MoU’s signed. The other aspect which is a challenge is identifying of the vast ocean the two to three projects that we want to work on. As you know we have said we want to work on projects that impact 100 million people, and have the potential to generate $100-million profit. We have been able to narrow down these focus areas at group level. We also said unless three or more companies are not working on an idea, we will not be part of it. If it’s only two companies than they can connect and work. 

Other than incubating businesses within the group, are you also wanting to work with Indian start-ups?
 

We are in a process of creating or setting up of incubators at Pune and Bengaluru. It is still at the drawing board level. But even before that for several initiatives within the group, we are working with start-ups. For instance for drones, we are working with a Bengaluru-based start-up Edal.

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