By Rickard Gustafson
During my visits to our engineering centres and operations in India, I am constantly struck by how seamlessly discussions move between precision mechanical systems, software, data and AI. A country long viewed primarily as a manufacturing base is increasingly becoming a core hub where global industrial solutions are conceived, developed, and scaled. That shift says as much about the future of global industry as it does about India.
Resilience over cost
For much of the past three decades, the competitive logic of global industry was straightforward: locate production where scale and cost were advantageous, build efficient supply chains and serve growing markets. While that model delivered enormous gains, the underlying conditions have changed.
Geopolitical fragmentation, energy security, technological disruption and the transition to a lower-carbon economy now force industries to optimise for something far more demanding than efficiency alone, requiring resilience without sacrificing competitiveness. Multipolarity, localisation and automation have become structural features of the current investment cycle, driven by accelerating capital deployment in power, renewables, grid infrastructure, railways, defence, and advanced technology.
Fusing physical systems with digital intelligence
This evolution changes the nature of industrial leadership. For instance, a modern wind turbine combines advanced materials, precision bearings, sensors, software, and predictive analytics. Its performance depends not on any single component, but on how these technologies operate as a unified system. The same holds true for a modern railway, a renewable power grid, or an automated production line. The factory floor has become the primary intersection of the physical and digital worlds.
In a more complex environment, competitiveness increasingly depends on an organisation’s ability to reduce friction across systems, processes and value chains. That friction typically manifests as unplanned downtime, energy losses, fragmented data, disconnected decision-making, and operational inefficiency. As modern industries grow more complex, the task is to ensure complexity does not turn into friction. And the organisations that solve this challenge will lead the market.
Redefining innovation & customer value
Achieving this requires a different model of innovation. For industrial companies, this means connecting engineering expertise, product development, operational data, and customer insights around real-world problems. This shift directly reflects changing customer priorities.
Having worked closely with customers across manufacturing, mobility, renewable energy, and infrastructure, I see that reliability, uptime, energy productivity and asset life matter just as much as individual product specifications. Technologies create true value only when they improve tangible outcomes such as sensors that prevent failures, AI that supports better engineering decisions, and digital tools that eliminate waste.
Sustainability as a core competitive driver
This is where sustainability becomes inseparable from competitiveness. Extending the useful life of equipment, using less energy for the same output, predicting maintenance before failure and reducing unnecessary material consumption are simultaneously economic and environmental gains. In industrial operations, the most sustainable solution is almost always the most productive one. Similarly, innovation that enables industry to do more with fewer resources will prove far more durable than treating sustainability as a compliance obligation.
India matters to this industrial future because its role in the global economy is changing. It has long been recognised as a powerful growth market and a reservoir of technological talent. It is now developing another identity: a partner in building, engineering, and increasingly innovating for global industry.
Having led an industrial company with deep roots in India, I have observed this evolution firsthand. Operations here have moved from manufacturing at scale toward direct engineering ownership and complex problem-solving for global customers.
Global accountability, led from India
Increasingly, global mandates, product ownership, engineering accountability and innovation programmes are being led from India rather than merely supported from it. This shift reflects growing confidence in India’s ability to shape outcomes, not just execute them.
With capital investment in India projected to rise 1.8 times by FY30 to approx $2.2 trillion* across energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and advanced technologies, the real story lies in its concurrent breadth. Power systems, transport networks, digital infrastructure and industrial capacity are advancing simultaneously, creating the exact multi-domain complexity that modern industry must learn to integrate.
Bridging research, talent, and execution
India’s innovation metrics highlight both current strengths and future opportunities. Ranked 38th in World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index, India stands out as an exceptionally efficient innovator, generating strong output relative to its input base. The next leap forward will come from tightening the connections and bridging universities and factories, research and commercialisation, software and physical engineering and capital with patient experimentation. Globally, leading industrial companies are building integrated technology centres where digital, software, and AI capabilities converge to solve operational challenges. India is uniquely positioned to lead this shift, serving as a primary hub where engineering accountability and customer value are created directly.
A bilateral framework
There is also an important international dimension.
The strategic partnership between India and Sweden focused on economic security, supply chain resilience, innovation, climate, and trade provides a clear framework to double bilateral commerce and investment. The two nations offer distinct, complementary strengths: India’s scale, agility, and software talent combined with Sweden’s century-long tradition of industrial engineering and manufacturing excellence. The true opportunity lies in combining these strengths to address complex global industrial challenges.
India’s transition to an innovation partner is creating an ecosystem where manufacturing, engineering, digital technology, and human capability continuously reinforce one another. Ultimately, India’s next chapter will not be defined solely by economic scale, but by its ability to turn talent and engineering into solutions that make global industry more resilient, productive, and sustainable. The opportunity is no longer simply to participate in the future of industry, but to shape it.
*Morgan Stanley Research Report
(The writer is president and CEO, SKF Group)