HOW SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC IS POWERING INDIA'S LEAP TO INDUSTRY 5.0?

As India advances toward Industry 5.0, Arvind Kakru, VP - Industrial Automation, Greater India, Schneider Electric, tells Nisha Shukla how open, software-defined automation is breaking hardware barriers and driving scalable, sustainable transformation— especially for MSMEs moving beyond legacy systems.

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For decades, industrial automation has been an unseen yet essential framework of modern manufacturing. However, despite significant advancements in industrial equipment, automation has often been limited to closed, hardware-dependent systems. As the manufacturing sector prepares for Industry 5.0—a future influenced by both human creativity and technological capability—a major transformation is taking place. Leading this change is Schneider Electric, a company which aims to redefine industrial control through open, software-defined automation.

“Like many traditional players, we have been in the industrial automation domain for a very long time,” said Arvind Kakru, Vice President — Industrial Automation, Greater India, Schneider Electric. “While industrial equipment has seen immense technological evolution, the core automation space hasn't transformed at the same pace. That's beginning to change now.”

Kakru explained that the transition towards Industry 4.0 has already redefined automation as more than just a mechanism for mechanisation. It is now a strategic enabler of operational resilience, efficiency, and safety. “There is a strong blend of IT and OT coming together now. This integration is key to open automation—it's what takes industrial automation to the next level,” he noted.

At the heart of this evolution lies a commitment to global, open automation standards, shaped collaboratively by users, vendors, academics, and institutions. These standards usher in an era of plug-and-produce systems that transcend hardware lock-ins and allow manufacturers the freedom to innovate.

“This is what we've built into our EcoStruxure Automation Expert,” Kakru said. “It decouples hardware from software, giving manufacturers flexibility in design, quicker integration, and the ability to scale effortlessly. You can start small, run a pilot, and scale as needed—this builds confidence and makes implementation much simpler.”