2,000 Patent Filings A Year Signal Increased Innovation At Tata Sons: CTO Gopichand Katragadda

Since 2015, Tata Group companies have showcased over 3,300 implemented innovations at its annual innovation program. The company says that's an over two-fold growth in two years. From drones to factory safety wearables to microbiome-based diagnostics to driver assist technologies, Tata companies have dabbled in practically each and every sector.

This digital push has been led by Gopichand Katragadda, group chief technology officer at Tata Sons. In a conversation with BloombergQuint, Katragadda spoke about the rate of innovation at the group, his outlook for the next few years and his views on immigration reform in the U.S.

Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.

In terms of Mr Chandra (as Chandrasekaran is called) coming into the role, he brings with him deep knowledge of technology. Of course, everybody knows he comes from the IT world. He comes with a strong focus on data. But, what may be less known is that TCS is a company which works on a variety of technology areas, right from biology, the data aspects of biology, to the design aspects of aircraft engines and power turbines. So, really, his knowledge is much larger than you would expect.

So, today I'm filing for 2,000 patents every year. Four years from today, we will be getting 2000 patents granted every year.

... The ones (innovations) showcased here at Innovista are the tip of the iceberg. And those we track to $1 billion revenue. But, that is really the tip of the iceberg. What is below that tip in terms of revenues, it is very difficult to identify it to an innovation for any company. So, what you will see in terms of outcomes is that the quality of income generated will continue to improve. Where we are today, to where we need to be, both on the quality of income as well as on positioning ourselves for the future, we have a long way to go.

We have about 300 gigawatts (GW) installed today. We need to get to 700 GW. That's 400 GW of energy that needs to be added. That's $400 billion of revenue. Somebody is going to get that $400 billion of revenue. I would like to have a significant part of that. 

But that is not all. You have to add transmission and distribution, which is another $400 billion of revenue. That's $800 billion of revenue and I would like companies in this region to be hungry, eager and innovative to take this. And in doing this, they will prepare themselves for being global first...

Food is another area. Again, it's an important area for the Tatas and India. We have some of the lowest productivity in terms of agricultural productivity. So, we would like to use less water, pesticide and fertiliser. By the way, these are all of our businesses, but we would like to use less of that. And increase the yield by using multiple approaches- from using better seeds to better delivery of pesticides and fertilisers.

Third area is factories and fleets. We know our factories and fleets, be it passenger vehicles or consumer vehicles. We know our truck drivers and factory floor workers. We are using that knowledge to look at industrial IoT (Internet of Things), and various other aspects of making them more productive. Digital consumers, you cannot be in business and not pay attention to that. So, we are starting with wearable for the digital factory floor worker, because that's our strength. But, the longer-term goal is to be present in the digital consumer markets in a big way.