Mr. Rajesh Nath has more than 29 years of experience working in various industries in
Germany and India. He has been accorded the “Cross of the Order of Merit” – highest
civilian award from the German President, for promoting Indo-German Trade in
Engineering Sector. Since 2008, he is heading VDMA India as Managing Director.

Indian Minerals: Govt of India has initiated major reforms in mining sector opening up lots of new opportunities. How is VDMA helping the German enterprises reach out to Indian market?

Rajesh Nath: Germany is known globally for its engineering technology and is a very strong partner to India in the mining machinery sector. Germany underlined this position with another German delegation consisting of the mining machinery manufacturers visiting India in 2019.

As a follow up of the visit of the Hon’ble Chief Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee and Hon’ble Finance Minister, Dr. Amit Mitra to Dusseldorf, Germany, and the high-level delegation from NRW to Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS 2019) including the discussion during IMME 2018 with representatives of VDMA, a delegation was organized by EnergieAgentur.NRW, VDMA Mining and VDMA India. The delegation comprising of 12 delegates from 7 German companies in opencast as well as underground technology visited Kolkata from 3rd to 5th November 2019. They included exploration, extraction, beneficiation, mineral processing and safety equipment.

On this occasion, in cooperation with the Govt. of West Bengal and the West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL), VDMA India alsoorganised a seminar on “Mine Safety and Production Efficiency” in Kolkata. This delegation of German mining machinery manufacturers presented to the mining industry in West Bengal, about latest technologies in safety and efficiency in Mining.

Indian Minerals: How can VDMA contribute to GoI’s “Atmanirbhar Bharat” scheme by inviting German mining machinery producers to set up plants in India?

Rajesh Nath: Covid-19 is an eye opener for the manufacturing industry. It shows how interdependent and vulnerable we are as an industry. Supply chains are experiencing an unprecedented level of shock, especially for manufacturers that rely on long and inflexible supply chains from a limited set of suppliers in South Asia. Suppliers need to seek to establish a more diversified client base and more localized customers across multiple geographies.

The reliance of India on the global industry is very high for it to just switch over to domestic production. There are several factors to keep in mind, such as quality, the quantity India requires and the cost of production domestically. As of now, competing with established global players on multiple fronts is far from reality, but India is moving towards a digital and technological growth phase which can put it on par with global leaders in the industry in the years to come.

Many German companies have set up and are setting up manufacturing in India in addition to the sale and service office. Several German companies and VDMA members have invested substantially in the last 5 years and are planning towards more investments in India. A lot of our member companies have established centers for product development and R&D also to serve the global requirements through the Indian workforce.

Indian Minerals: India has a number of minerals which require beneficiation like bauxite, magnesite etc. Also we need to improve mine productivity especially in sectors like coal. How can VDMA help us in bringing appropriate German technology to India? Or in other words how can Indian mining industry reap the benefits of recent R&D achievements of German R&D?

Rajesh Nath: Raw materials are the indispensable foundation for everything and will remain so in future. Machine manufacturers from Germany stand out in raw material processing with their expertise, passion for research and their innovative strength.

The Mining industry in India is a major economic activity which contributes significantly to the economy of India. India currently produces around 95 minerals under different groups, with 4 fuel related minerals, 10 metallic minerals, 23 non-metallic minerals, 3 atomic minerals and 55 minor minerals. The country has immense potential for mining resources and reserves and is currently among the top 10 global producers of many minerals.

German manufacturers’ business with coal is currently shifting to Asia. Russia, India and China are all increasing their capacities.

Only progressing digitalisation can meet the demands for raw materials from the 9 billion people predicted to live in 2050. The mining industry is investing in these processes, as the quality of their data and analyses is crucial. The evaluation of the collected data generates an added value and opens up new business models.

Indian Minerals: Can you cite some successful case studies regarding Indo-German collaboration in mining?

Rajesh Nath: Mining and mining technology continue to play an important role in Germany. The sector generates tax revenue and guarantees jobs, as even in the future, there will be no product that does not require raw materials to be extracted and mined – both in Germany and around the world. In this regard, companies are increasingly relying on climate-friendly and energy-efficient machines and plants.

In the last 20 years, there has been a six-seven fold increase in exports from Germany to India. Almost half of Germany’s export volume of EUR 12 billion to India is accounted for by machines and industrial equipment. In 2019, the total import of machinery from Germany reached a volume of € 3.07 billion. Among the machinery sectors, major demand of German equipment was for Power Transmission (11.6%), Plastics and Rubber Machinery (6.9%), Machine Tools (6.9%), Valves & Fittings (5.3%) and Air Handling Technology (5.1%). There are other sectors like Construction Equipment &Mining Machinery, fluid power equipments, Textile Machinery and food processing & packaging, which are growing steadily in India.

German organisations have been quite active in India. It is estimated that today, more than 1, 800 German companies are active in India, and employ more than 4 lakh people directly and indirectly, including the major companies in the mining sector like Siemens, Thyssenkrupp and MBE etc.

Indian Minerals: How can Germany help Indian mining sector to clean up the environment, ensure best pollution control practices and safety of the workers?

Rajesh Nath: The industry, institutes and universities are working together to make mining technology sustainable, energy-efficient and safer, for example through alternative drives and reduced energy consumption in the mines. Digitized work processes and machines which operate and interact autonomously are the future.
With increasing shares of renewables, more and more coal fired power plants of Germany’s entire fleet had to decide to become flexible or to shut down their generation activity completely. With more than 50% of Germany’s annual power consumption already coming from renewables and mainly from wind and solar, there is no doubt that flexibilisation of generation assets had become an important measure to keep the electricity system stable.
Germany would like India to benefit from these learnings. First Indian pioneers of operators are already operating their plants a lot more flexible and are willing to further improve their skills. Germany recognizes increased interested on central, state and private sector level across the country with more and more operators gaining India specific knowledge about flexible operation of coal fired power stations.

Indian Minerals: Apart from hardware and software part, a very vital component is skilling of human resource in appropriate technology. Has there been any plan in this regard by VDMA or other premier German technological institutions?

Rajesh Nath: Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development. The demographic transition of India makes it imperative to ensure employment opportunities for more than 12 million youth entering the workforce annually.

India is one of the youngest nations in the world, with more than 54% of the total population below 25 years of age and over 62% of the population in the working age group (15-59 years). India currently faces a shortage of well-trained, skilled workers. It is estimated that only 2.3% of the workforce in India has undergone formal skill training as compared to 68% in the UK, 75% in Germany, 52% in USA, 80% in Japan and 96% in South Korea.

The Skill India campaign was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15th July, 2018 to provide the institutional capacity to train a minimum of 300 million skilled people by the year 2022. The vision, objectives and design of the Skill India Mission draw on the lessons learnt from the implementation of skill development efforts over the past decade. This campaign is an important milestone towards achieving the objective of skill development with speed, scale and standards across the country.

In this regard, Germany and India are already deepening their collaboration in the field of skill development. An implementation agreement was signed between the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) of India and the German International Cooperation (GIZ), to initiate a new project focused on adapting elements of the German dual system in select industrial clusters in India.

The dual system has been a major factor in Germany’s economic success and inventiveness over the past six decades. Many countries have looked at Germany’s dual education system when reforming their own vocational education training / skill education system.

German technical assistance will be used to enhance industry-institute partnerships between Indian and German organizations, build capacity of local training institutions and foster industry linkages which will help adapt elements of the German dual system, into the Indian context.

Indian Minerals: Lastly. what will be VDMA’s message to Indian mining fraternity?

Rajesh Nath: One of the most vital pillars of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat strategy is the opening up of commercial coal mining. Forty-one coal mines are to be auctioned through transparent bidding. The Coal Ministry has however, recently, revised the list of mines to be auctioned for commercial mining and now 38 blocks would go under the hammer instead of 41 blocks announced earlier.

In May 2020, along with opening up commercial coal mining, promoting coal gasification and auctioning 50 new coal and 500 mineral blocks as part of the Covid-19 reforms package, the government also promised an investment of € 5882.35 million (Rs. 50,000 crore) to create transportation infrastructure for evacuating 1 billion tonnes of coal from Coal India’s mines.

Technology innovation plays a key role in any industry. It is essential for manufacturers to upgrade their product range and come out with new models. It is imperative, that technology is only going to survive in the difficult times and it is the right time to encash from the opportunity, the crisis has provided.

Additionally, at a time when people are looking for cost-effectiveness in manufacturing, digitization of data, complex manufacturing system, advanced machine tools, implementation of SAP / ERP / PLM, IoT, networking, smart factories, smart cities, real time data requirement in smart network have invited a situation which is addressed by Industry 4.0 that is going to be a technology that will drive and shape our future. Industry 4.0 increases the cost of manufacturing. Conditional monitoring and remote monitoring has hardly any cost, but has huge benefits.

For these reasons, the sector is gearing up for an innovation campaign for the bauma 2022 trade fair. An entire day of the trade fair will focus on the topic of mining technology under the motto “Mining – sustainable, efficient, reliable”. Ranging from in-house production to alternative drives, sensor technology, OPC UA, smart components, predictive maintenance, companion specifications and the digital twin, the manufacturers will show that the communication between the individual systems and components is key.

Indian Minerals: Thank you very much for talking to Indian Minerals.

Rajesh Nath: You’re welcome.