Process Safety

Advanced countries have established independent Centres of Excellence in Process Safety and Risk Analysis because such highly specialized knowledge cannot be sustainably developed within individual companies. In contrast, safety studies in India are often outsourced to foreign consultants at exorbitant costs. Even then, many companies - under cost pressure - treat risk analysis as a mere compliance exercise

- DR. J.P GUPTA

Safety and Risk Management today is a high-order science that relies on extremely sophisticated computational tools. Modern risk analysis requires advanced 2D and 3D simulation software based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), capable of running millions of simulations to quantify risk under a wide range of operating and accident scenarios. Such tools have been developed by a handful of technologically advanced countries, involving teams of highly qualified scientists working continuously over several years.

Validation of these tools through full-scale experimental testing further adds to their complexity and cost. The acquisition and use of these imported software systems are expensive and impose a heavy financial burden on both large and small Indian companies.

Annual Renewal License fees are prohibitively expensive, sometimes amounting to nearly the cost of the base software itself. In addition, operating these tools requires extensive training, often running into several months, adding further cost and dependency. As a result, India today lacks indigenous software tools for comprehensive risk analysis, as well as advanced AI-driven training facilities using Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).

This dependence has become a strategic vulnerability. Increasingly frequent technology sanctions and restrictions imposed by advanced countries ~ even on Indian engineering and defence organisations ~ have disrupted access to critical safety and risk-analysis tools, directly affecting operational continuity.