Optic fibre: Messenger for Indian industries

By OEM Update Editorial June 17, 2019 1:51 pm IST

KK Shetty, CEO & MD, Citadel Intelligent Systems Ltd discusses the acceptance of digital media in today’s world and how people are using digital platform for communication, transaction or all the economic activities on digital platform.

What do you think has Make in India made for India’s optic fibre sector?
Make in India has been a commendable initiative by the Government of India. Especially, this concept in aerospace and defence has widened larger avenues for various businesses, including optic fibre. If you look at it today, there is a huge requirement for the optical fibre connectivity solutions in the space of tactical communication. Due to Make in India, nearly 30 per cent of business will be sourced locally (under offset policy), which will ideally boost the growth of the industry. By creating a requisite infrastructure over a period with this scale, India will exponentially grow locally and globally.

Now, offset partnership mechanism is when Government of India (in this scenario of aerospace and defence) places an order with the foreign manufacturer under the Make in India initiative, the foreign company should source 30 per cent of product or services from an Indian company (locally). This 30 per cent will be of the total value of the order. This is a directive by Ministry of Defence to boost the Make in India initiative in the country. Now, this requirement of 30 per cent can be fulfilled by one or more companies.

How do you view Digital India’s efforts to empower India in the absence of IT awareness programmes in the industry?
The world is already moving towards digital media and we see more and more acceptance, as it also brings the convenient factor. People are using digital medium for communication, transaction or other economic activities on digital platform. Digital is faster and highly efficient, and I see it growing in the coming years. With government introducing Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar under Digital India initiative, which has seen more inflow of data transaction, there is a need of high bandwidth for smooth and seamless transition of these data and that can be managed only by optical fibre infrastructure.

What are your thoughts on on repayment challenges of Mudra loan?
There are still in the initial stage. Once the economy gains momentum and liquidity improves, they will be streamlined.

How do you view the role of optical fibre cables in smart manufacturing?
Optical fibre and its solutions play a huge role in streamlining the connectivity system across sectors. Rapid development of infrastructure, manufacturing corridors and large campus networking has accentuated the massive requirement of optical fibre cables applications which is now an integrated part of smart manufacturing.

How do you view your industry’s robust roadmap for the future?
We are operating in three different verticals lsuch as enterprise data centre, hyperscale data centres, and enterprise cabling through strategic alliance with AFL (America Fujikura Limited). For infrastructural solutions, we are more focused on security and surveillance, LAN cabling, campus networking, and smart cities.

We also have unique products for telecom sector. In aerospace and defence, we currently focus on military ground tactical communication and surveillance systems. Additionally, we have the capacity to supply typical FO interconnectivity products for the above areas of application along with air and sea communication systems. Covering all these sectors under CIS, the market growth size is huge, and we have strategically positioned CIS considering the robust roadmap for the future.

Due to Make in India, nearly 30 per cent of business will be sourced locally, boosting the growth of the industry
KK Shetty, CEO & MD, Citadel Intelligent Systems Ltd