Praveena Sharma, Bangalore
DNA
On the battlefront, you can hear the gunfire; and the fighter aircraft swoops down at more than 250 knots, lobs shells and disappears into the horizon.
This is not a real-life war situation. It is a situation created on visual simulation software for one of the many training sessions of the Indian armed forces. Defence forces are increasingly using visual simulation software for training, testing and mission rehearsals on new equipment. And this is boosting the revenues of technology firms that provide visual simulation software to the Army, Navy and Air Force, as also to makers of defence equipment.
Suman Bose, India head of French aerospace company Dassault Systemes, said over the last few years, the company's revenues from visual simulation have grown by over 50%. For Dassault, visual simulation is part of the overall product lifecycle management (PLM) solution it provides to clients. PLM is engineering service, wherein every stage of a product, from conceptual design to analysis, manufacture and maintenance, is visually simulated before the actual product starts rolling out from a plant.
"An aerospace company, or for that matter any company, simulates the entire manufacturing process so that when the first aircraft is made, it is without a single mistake. This way, companies are able to increase their productivity by 20-30% and reduce manpower cost by hundreds of people," said Bose.
And even though the overall PLM service revenues of tech companies have taken a dip, buoyant demand from the defence sector is keeping their visual simulation income flying. Prasanth Pawar, country manager of EDS Technologies, said recession may have affected business from automobile and other sectors but defence spend of more than Rs 15,000 crore over the next few years has thrown up opportunities.
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