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Home-based workers in India

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The International Labour Organization (ILO) a tripartite United Nations organisation has been known for its contribution towards labour, employers and governments by coming forward with conventions, so that the same when ratified by a country become applicable to that country. The General Conference of ILO in 1996 adopted the Home Work Convention (also called Convention No. 177).

The salient features of this convention are:

l The term home work means work carried out by a person, to be referred to as a home worker,

1. In his or her home or in other premises of his or her choice, other than the workplace of the employer;

2. For remuneration;

3. Which results in a product or service as specified by the employer, irrespective of who provides the equipment, materials or other inputs used, unless this person has the degree of autonomy and of economic independence necessary to be considered an independent worker under national laws, regulations or court decisions;

Persons with employee status do not become home workers within the meaning of this convention simply by occasionally performing their work as employees at home, rather than at their usual workplaces;

The term employer means a person, natural or legal, who, either directly or through an intermediary, whether or not intermediaries are provided for in national legislation, gives out home work in pursuance of his or her business activity.

Under Article seven of the convention the national policy on home work shall promote, as far as possible, equality of treatment between home workers and other wage earners, taking into account the special characteristics of home work and, where appropriate, conditions applicable to the same or a similar type of work carried out in an enterprise.

The International Labour Conference in its 103rd session in 2014 and the 104th session in 2015 held discussions on transition from the informal economy to the formal economy and this has major relevance to a country like India, where the major employment in the labour market is in the informal sector and home based workers are a part of this sector. India has not ratified this convention.

Home-based work in India

Home based work in India historically evolved from home craft production activity, where the individual house hold members acquired the skill from their parents and produced the products in their home/yard needed by the residents in the vicinity. To produce these items at home a variety of materials are used such as bamboo, grass, leaves, flowers, wood, cotton yarn, synthetic yarn, silk yarn, silver thread, gold thread, mud, clay, terracotta, ceramics, glass, metallic mineral material, cotton, silk, etc. Many of these items are unique and have become household utility. The Government has set up (i) Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) (ii) Central Silk Board (iii) Coir Board (iv) Handloom Board (v) Handicrafts Board (vi) Forest Corporations (vii) National Small Industries Corporation and these institutions are suppose to play an active role in helping in the design, development, marketing and distribution of these products to Indian and foreign customers.

We are well aware of items produced in various states of India for example chikan work by home based women workers in and around Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh , chanderi design sari weaving from Madhya Pradesh, bangles from Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh, “sanganeri print” (clothes with a colourful block print) in and around Jaipur, phulkari a traditional embroidery from Punjab, hand embroidered table cloth/bed sheets/shawls from Kashmir, bidri ware from Karnataka, bell metal item of Bastar from Chattisgarh, plus many other products made in various parts of India. There are also many private players in India who get specific products produced/upgraded by home based workers and sell in the domestic and export market., where the money is really made by the various players in the supply and distribution chain and the home based worker who works on a piece rate system, by and large earns a paltry sum and is the lowest beneficiary in the system.

These home based crafts historically led to the caste/sub caste system where specific products were produced by certain people/community for local consumption. Specific geographical locations in India because of availability of raw material, availability of skilled artisans, and the support of rich persons/rulers/governments/major buyers has led to the development of clusters which produced unique products and also the skills got upgraded producing quality products. Presently workers both in rural and urban India are involved in various economic activities at home depending on the inherited/acquired/upgraded skills. In practically every states of India, a particular location is famous for certain specific crafts, textiles and food products.

Most States in India are famous for the design, weaving, and embroidery of wearing apparels and textiles made by home based workers. Often the home based workers have to fight against all odds at every stage of their business, be it in availability/buying the raw materials or promoting their products, arranging for capital or access to insurance covers, etc. To his/her utter misfortune the home based worker is by and large exploited by the supply chain. Hence, it is important to ensure that the benefit of value added services reaches the home based worker.

The definition of home based workers is the category of workers who carry out remunerative work in their homes or adjacent/nearby premises, but the premise is not owned by the employer. Some home-based workers are independent self-employed workers who take the entrepreneurial risk and there are others who are totally dependent on a firm or contractor or a sub contractor for supply of raw material and sale of the product produced. The second categories of home based workers are also referred to as sub contracted home based workers; but obtaining official statistics to assess the number of home based workers becomes difficult in every country unless the classification in bifurcation is made of those that take the entrepreneurial risk and the others who are totally dependent on a firm or contractor while collecting the data in the national survey.

Number of home-based workers in India

Homenet South Asia and Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) in December 2013 have compiled and analysed home-based workers in India based on data collected by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) through the Unemployment Survey in 2011-12. Details of the same, as published by them are briefly given below. {More Details Reference (2)}

The total home based workers in India in 2011-12 are 37.45 million of which 20.51 million are rural and 16.94 million are urban. The total home based women workers in India in 2011 -12 are 16.05 million of which 8.71 million are rural and 7.34 million are urban. The total home based men workers in India in 2011 -12 are 21.4 million of which 11.79 million are rural and 9.61 million are urban.

The industry in which home based workers in India in 2011-12 are involved is manufacturing (54.7 per cent), whole sale and retail trade (26.1 per cent), other community social and personal services (5.2 per cent), hotels and restaurants (3.7 per cent), education (3.1 per cent), real estate — renting and business activities (2.3 per cent), transport, storage and communication (2 per cent), financial intermediation (1.1 per cent), health and social work (1.1 per cent), construction (0.6 per cent), mining and quarrying (0.1 per cent).

An analysis of the manufacturing industries in which home based workers in India in 2011-12 are involved is manufacture of wearing apparels (23.72 per cent), manufacture of textiles (21.17 per cent), manufacture of tobacco products (19.42 per cent), manufacture of wood and products of wood and cork (8.58 per cent), manufacture of food products and beverages (8.21 per cent), manufacture of furniture (8.16 per cent), manufacture of other metallic mineral products (3.06 per cent), others (7.68 per cent) .

From the data analysis it is clear, that the home based workers in India are mainly in manufacture of wearing apparels, manufacture of textiles, manufacture of tobacco products and also in whole sale & retail trade.

The total of 37.45 million workers makes India the biggest home for home-based workers; hence there is a need for Government, trade unions, NGOs, employer organisations and academic institutes to jointly work to help the conditions of these workers.

Earnings of home-based workers in India

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) with the support of the ILO carried out a research study in 2006 & 2007 among 3,300 (i.e. 2720 women and 580 men) home based workers in 40 districts in ten states of India i.e. ??Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The survey covered four metropolitan cities, 41 towns (small, medium, as well as relatively large) and 43 villages. Coverage in this study is more towards women than men, though the national statistics given in the paragraph above indicate a higher proportion of men in home based work. The report of the study was published in 2013 and though the data collected is old because it is for 2006 and 2007, still it is indicative of the low earnings of these workers. {More Details Reference (1)}.

The study was carried out by CITU activists meeting home based workers and the report as published indicates the following:

  • 93 per cent were involved in manufacturing processes and only 7 per cent in services inclusive of retail trade. One third of the workers were involved in textiles including handloom, tailoring, etc. Others included beedi rolling; incense sticks (agarbatti) manufacturing, bamboo and coir products, flowers, food processing, etc.

  • Majority of workers mentioned that poverty was the main reason for doing home based work.

  • The average monthly earnings from home based work was found to be as low as Rs 538. About 42 per cent were earning between Rs 50 and Rs 500. About 35 per cent earned between Rs 520 to Rs 1,000. About 59 per cent earned less than Rs 1000/- per month.

  • More than 60 per cent of the workers explicitly stated that their work was irregular while 39 per cent said it was regular. Irregular availability of work would be a factor in determining the low monthly earnings of many workers since 64 per cent of those earning between Rs 50 to Rs 500 were those who did not get work regularly.

  • 47 per cent of the workers said that family members, i.e., spouse, other adult relations and generally children worked with them. 55 per cent of all the workers worked a full 8 hours and more. 18 per cent were working more than 10 hours in the day.

  • More than three fourths of those working more than 10 hours a day managed to earn only between Rs 25 and Rs 50. On average the earnings of the surveyed workers were less than Rs 25 for a day?? labour, when work is available.

  • Less than ten per cent of the workers had any social security.

  • The self employed workers constituted a mere 14 per cent of the home based workers. In other words, the overwhelming majority, 86 per cent were home workers according to the definitions of the ILO Convention.

  • About 31 per cent of the workers who answered the question informed that agents, brokers, contractors supplied work to them. These were followed by merchants, traders, businessmen who were the employers of some 20 per cent of the workers. About 23 per cent did not answer this question.

  • In general more than half of the workers in home based work are either completely uneducated or have had only primary schooling. About 19 per cent of the total workers were non-literate but there were wide regional variations.

The work in majority of the cases is a combination of home and an economic activity and there is a need to see how the earnings of this category of workers can reach the prescribed minimum wage level specified by the State Government. It is unfortunate that the monthly earnings of home based workers by and large are very low.

There are also home based workers in metropolitan cities in India, who through small office home office (SOHO) carry on various economic activities and earn substantial income. However, these numbers in comparison to the national figures are few and limited. These home based workers are well educated and well networked. They are mostly involved in manufacturing/trading activity at times also involving high priced elitist items like diamond/gold/silver jewellery, fashion garments and high priced cookery items. There are others who also supply packed lunch for office goers from their home. There are also some individuals in cities, who are well qualified and involved in Information IT-based applications from their residence involved operating AUTOCAD/other applications from home PC’s provided by employer because of space limitations.

NGOs of home-based workers in India

Lijjat Papad is a well documented case of how seven women living in a group of five buildings in Girgaum, Bombay (now called Mumbai) started a venture to create a sustainable livelihood using the only skill they had i.e. cooking. The seven women borrowed Rs 80 from Chagganlal Karamsi Parekh (also called Chagganbaba) and manufactured packets of papads in 1959 and sold the papads to a known merchant in the local area. The women initially were making two different qualities of papads, to sell the inferior one at a cheaper price. Chaganbapa who became their guide advised them to make a standard papad and asked them never to compromise on quality. He emphasized to them the importance of running home based work as a business enterprise and maintaining proper accounts. In 1962, the brand name Lijjat (in local language Gujarati Lijjat meaning tasty) was chosen by the group for the products and the organisation was named Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad.

In July 1966, Lijjat registered itself as a society under the Societies Registration Act 1860. In September 1966, Khadi Village and Industries Commission (KVIC) formally recognised Lijjat as a unit belonging to the “processing of cereals and pulses industry group” under the Khadi and Village Industries Act, which helped the organisation get benefits of working capital at subsidised interest rates and certain tax exemptions. The rest is history, as today Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad popularly known as Lijjat, is an Indian women?? cooperative not only involved in producing papads but in producing and marketing of other fast moving consumer goods needed for house hold consumption like khakra, chapatti, spices, wheat flour, bakery products and detergents (cake, powder, liquid). This is an excellent case of women empowerment and improving livelihood of home based women workers. Apart from Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad there are also other examples of NGOs/cooperatives in India which have done excellent work on improving livelihood of home based workers and these have not been covered in this article.

Corporate sector role in home-based workers in India

There are corporate sectors in India that have taken up business related projects which would help in improving the livelihood of home based workers. ITC Ltd in 2004 undertook the activity of developing the brand Mangaldeep of incense sticks (agarbattis) to benefit the home based workers and in later years helped the Tripura Government?? ambitious agarbatti project, which involved developing clusters to manufacture agarbattis statewide. Also ITC Ltd entered in an agreement with the Cane & Bamboo Technology Centre in Guwahati, Assam to undertake similar ventures in other parts of the northeastern region, except Tripura. The inhabitants of the northeastern region were trained by ITC Ltd to make agarbattis as per the quality norms laid down by ITC.

The company buys back the entire production that is manufactured in this cluster. Incidentally, ITC Ltd has entered the Rs 18 billion (i.e. Rs 1800 crore) agarbatti business to improve livelihood of home based workers and small scale units spread across Bangalore, Agartala, Hyderabad and Kolkata. ITC Ltd brand Mangaldeep entered the market in 2004 and is today the country?? second-largest agarbatti brand after the leader Cycle brand which is manufactured by Mysore Products and General Trading Company which entered this business in 1948. This is an example of corporate sector developing scale, utilizing its managerial and marketing capability to bring about a transformational change in creating improved livelihood for the home based workers in specific locations through an identified product which meets the needs of the customers at affordable price.

Large corporations based on their experience, capabilities and strengths could look at supply chain linkages for products that are/can be made by home based workers which involves zero or low capital investment in fixed asset of any plant/machinery, so that the activity can improve the livelihood of home based workers. Apart from ITC there are also other examples from the corporate sector in India which have done excellent work on improving livelihood of home based workers and these have not been covered in this article.

Need to use CSR projects

As per the new Companies Act, most companies in India are required to spend 2 per cent of their net profit on CSR project. Each company chooses a CSR project within the framework of Section 135 under Schedule VII of the Companies Act, and the first reporting had to be done before the year ending 31 March 2015. Companies have been looking at various CSR projects and some of them have also done base line survey to ensure that the project helps in improving livelihood of the targeted population that they plan covering. Employment enhancing vocational skills has been listed under Schedule VII in Section 135 of The Companies Act, 2013 which can be included by companies in their CSR projects.

Hence companies could take up CSR projects in specific districts where their plants are located or where they are interested and enhance vocational skills plus teach simple management concepts to the home based workers to improve their livelihood .The strength of the corporate sector is that it can facilitate in generating scale, by developing simple sourcing, manufacturing, quality, financial, distribution and marketing systems which can help in transformation of livelihood of home based workers by facilitating them to earn better wages. The objective of these projects would be to improve the existing livelihood earnings of home-based workers through improved productive, safe and environment friendly economic activity that they undertake by producing quality products and facilitate in marketing the same. This will help the home based worker to improve their earnings which presently in most cases are pathetic.

Role of employer in home-based workers in India

The national and regional employer/chambers of commerce/trade associations in India can play a role in encouraging their members to take up the cause of home based workers by undertaking some of these activities.

(i) Publicise case studies of member enterprises who have made home based workers part of their supply and distribution chain and helped in improving their livelihood.

(ii) Discussions with members in supporting home based workers in areas associated with activities of their member enterprises, either as a business proposition or as a CSR activity.

(iii) Conferring Awards to members involved in contributing to the betterment of home based workers.

(iv) Involve owner enterprises who are directly dealing with home based workers by making them members, and partner with stake holders i.e. trade unions, NGOs, academic institutes and local government to improve the functioning of the owner enterprises and home based workers. Also develop a voluntary code for owner enterprises.

(v) Undertaking research studies in select States in specific manufacturing activity where home based workers are involved in the supply chain i.e. manufacture of wearing apparels, manufacture of textiles, manufacture of tobacco products, manufacture of wood and products of wood and cork, manufacture of food products and beverages, manufacture of furniture, manufacture of other metallic mineral products to know the present status and develop strategies for improvement.

Conclusion

The Second National Commission on Labour dealt in detail with the opinions it received from Academicians, Labour Lawyers, Trade Unions, Employer Organizations, Professional Bodies and NGOs on the informal sector and in its report released in September 2002, came forward with some major recommendations for the informal sector like:

(i) Ratification of ILO Convention 177 of 1996 on Home Based Work

(ii) Social Security Network for the informal sector

(iii) Right to work, already a directive principle, should be made a Fundamental Right under the Constitution of India.

In India, Government, trade unions, NGOs, employer organisations and academic institutes need to jointly work to ensure that each of the stakeholders helps the home based workers as India is the biggest home for home based workers which are more than 37.45 million.

(i) Government needs to deal with social security coverage. Also Government organisations like KVIC and other bodies need to work on specific products and regions to improve the earnings of the home based workers.

(ii) Trade unions and NGOs need to extend support and facilitate in organising these workers on crafts and region basis and ensuring certain minimum working conditions and benefits.

(iii) Corporate sector to facilitate training, technical up gradation, marketing and branding and also seeing if they can be part of the supply chain.

(iv) Academic Institutions helping in improving design of products produced and also carrying out research.

All stakeholders need to work in a direction to improve the plight of the home based workers by ensuring that they can earn a decent wage.

References

(1) Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) ?? Survey on the Conditions of Home Based Workers in India??study in 2006 & 2007 published in 2013.

(2) Govindan Ravichandran, Ratna M. Sudarshan & John Vanak ??ome- Based Workers in India : Statistics and Trends??published by Homenet South Asia and Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) in Dec 2013

(3) Ratna M Sudarshan and Shalini Sinha ??aking Home??ased Work Visible: A Review of Evidence from South Asia??published by Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) Working Paper (Urban Policies ) No. 19 January 2011.

Published in July 2015 issue of ??urrent Labour Reports??& ??rbiter??/strong>

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr Rajen Mehrotra is immediate Past President of Industrial Relations Institute of India (IRII), Former Senior Employers??Specialist for South Asian Region with International Labour Organization (ILO) and Former Corporate Head of HR with ACC and Former Corporate Head of Manufacturing and HR with Novartis India. Email:rajenmehrotra@gmail.com

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Concrete

Refractory demands in our kiln have changed

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February 20, 2026

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Radha Singh, Senior Manager (P&Q), Shree Digvijay Cement, points out why performance, predictability and life-cycle value now matter more than routine replacement in cement kilns.

As Indian cement plants push for higher throughput, increased alternative fuel usage and tighter shutdown cycles, refractory performance in kilns and pyro-processing systems is under growing pressure. In this interview, Radha Singh, Senior Manager (P&Q), Shree Digvijay Cement, shares how refractory demands have evolved on the ground and how smarter digital monitoring is improving kiln stability, uptime and clinker quality.

How have refractory demands changed in your kiln and pyro-processing line over the last five years?
Over the last five years, refractory demands in our kiln and pyro line have changed. Earlier, the focus was mostly on standard grades and routine shutdown-based replacement. But now, because of higher production loads, more alternative fuels and raw materials (AFR) usage and greater temperature variation, the expectation from refractory has increased.
In our own case, the current kiln refractory has already completed around 1.5 years, which itself shows how much more we now rely on materials that can handle thermal shock, alkali attack and coating fluctuations. We have moved towards more stable, high-performance linings so that we don’t have to enter the kiln frequently for repairs.
Overall, the shift has been from just ‘installation and run’ to selecting refractories that give longer life, better coating behaviour and more predictable performance under tougher operating conditions.

What are the biggest refractory challenges in the preheater, calciner and cooler zones?
• Preheater: Coating instability, chloride/sulphur cycles and brick erosion.
• Calciner: AFR firing, thermal shock and alkali infiltration.
• Cooler: Severe abrasion, red-river formation and mechanical stress on linings.
Overall, the biggest challenge is maintaining lining stability under highly variable operating conditions.

How do you evaluate and select refractory partners for long-term performance?
In real plant conditions, we don’t select a refractory partner just by looking at price. First, we see their past performance in similar kilns and whether their material has actually survived our operating conditions. We also check how strong their technical support is during shutdowns, because installation quality matters as much as the material itself.
Another key point is how quickly they respond during breakdowns or hot spots. A good partner should be available on short notice. We also look at their failure analysis capability, whether they can explain why a lining failed and suggest improvements.
On top of this, we review the life they delivered in the last few campaigns, their supply reliability and their willingness to offer plant-specific custom solutions instead of generic grades. Only a partner who supports us throughout the life cycle, which includes selection, installation, monitoring and post-failure analysis, fits our long-term requirement.

Can you share a recent example where better refractory selection improved uptime or clinker quality?
Recently, we upgraded to a high-abrasion basic brick at the kiln outlet. Earlier we had frequent chipping and coating loss. With the new lining, thermal stability improved and the coating became much more stable. As a result, our shutdown interval increased and clinker quality remained more consistent. It had a direct impact on our uptime.

How is increased AFR use affecting refractory behaviour?
Increased AFR use is definitely putting more stress on the refractory. The biggest issue we see daily is the rise in chlorine, alkalis and volatiles, which directly attack the lining, especially in the calciner and kiln inlet. AFR firing is also not as stable as conventional fuel, so we face frequent temperature fluctuations, which cause more thermal shock and small cracks in the lining.
Another real problem is coating instability. Some days the coating builds too fast, other days it suddenly drops, and both conditions impact refractory life. We also notice more dust circulation and buildup inside the calciner whenever the AFR mix changes, which again increases erosion.
Because of these practical issues, we have started relying more on alkali-resistant, low-porosity and better thermal shock–resistant materials to handle the additional stress coming from AFR.

What role does digital monitoring or thermal profiling play in your refractory strategy?
Digital tools like kiln shell scanners, IR imaging and thermal profiling help us detect weakening areas much earlier. This reduces unplanned shutdowns, helps identify hotspots accurately and allows us to replace only the critical sections. Overall, our maintenance has shifted from reactive to predictive, improving lining life significantly.

How do you balance cost, durability and installation speed during refractory shutdowns?
We focus on three points:
• Material quality that suits our thermal profile and chemistry.
• Installation speed, in fast turnarounds, we prefer monolithic.
• Life-cycle cost—the cheapest material is not the most economical. We look at durability, future downtime and total cost of ownership.
This balance ensures reliable performance without unnecessary expenditure.

What refractory or pyro-processing innovations could transform Indian cement operations?
Some promising developments include:
• High-performance, low-porosity and nano-bonded refractories
• Precast modular linings to drastically reduce shutdown time
• AI-driven kiln thermal analytics
• Advanced coating management solutions
• More AFR-compatible refractory mixes

These innovations can significantly improve kiln stability, efficiency and maintenance planning across the industry.

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Concrete

Digital supply chain visibility is critical

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MSR Kali Prasad, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Shree Cement, discusses how data, discipline and scale are turning Industry 4.0 into everyday business reality.

Over the past five years, digitalisation in Indian cement manufacturing has moved decisively beyond experimentation. Today, it is a strategic lever for cost control, operational resilience and sustainability. In this interview, MSR Kali Prasad, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Shree Cement, explains how integrated digital foundations, advanced analytics and real-time visibility are helping deliver measurable business outcomes.

How has digitalisation moved from pilot projects to core strategy in Indian cement manufacturing over the past five years?
Digitalisation in Indian cement has evolved from isolated pilot initiatives into a core business strategy because outcomes are now measurable, repeatable and scalable. The key shift has been the move away from standalone solutions toward an integrated digital foundation built on standardised processes, governed data and enterprise platforms that can be deployed consistently across plants and functions.
At Shree Cement, this transition has been very pragmatic. The early phase focused on visibility through dashboards, reporting, and digitisation of critical workflows. Over time, this has progressed into enterprise-level analytics and decision support across manufacturing and the supply chain,
with clear outcomes in cost optimisation, margin protection and revenue improvement through enhanced customer experience.
Equally important, digital is no longer the responsibility of a single function. It is embedded into day-to-day operations across planning, production, maintenance, despatch and customer servicing, supported by enterprise systems, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) data platforms, and a structured approach to change management.

Which digital interventions are delivering the highest ROI across mining, production and logistics today?
In a capital- and cost-intensive sector like cement, the highest returns come from digital interventions that directly reduce unit costs or unlock latent capacity without significant capex.
Supply chain and planning (advanced analytics): Tools for demand forecasting, S&OP, network optimisation and scheduling deliver strong returns by lowering logistics costs, improving service levels, and aligning production with demand in a fragmented and regionally diverse market.
Mining (fleet and productivity analytics): Data-led mine planning, fleet analytics, despatch discipline, and idle-time reduction improve fuel efficiency and equipment utilisation, generating meaningful savings in a cost-heavy operation.
Manufacturing (APC and process analytics): Advanced Process Control, mill optimisation, and variability reduction improve thermal and electrical efficiency, stabilise quality and reduce rework and unplanned stoppages.
Customer experience and revenue enablement (digital platforms): Dealer and retailer apps, order visibility and digitally enabled technical services improve ease of doing business and responsiveness. We are also empowering channel partners with transparent, real-time information on schemes, including eligibility, utilisation status and actionable recommendations, which improves channel satisfaction and market execution while supporting revenue growth.
Overall, while Artificial Intelligence (AI) and IIoT are powerful enablers, it is advanced analytics anchored in strong processes that typically delivers the fastest and most reliable ROI.

How is real-time data helping plants shift from reactive maintenance to predictive and prescriptive operations?
Real-time and near real-time data is driving a more proactive and disciplined maintenance culture, beginning with visibility and progressively moving toward prediction and prescription.
At Shree Cement, we have implemented a robust SAP Plant Maintenance framework to standardise maintenance workflows. This is complemented by IIoT-driven condition monitoring, ensuring consistent capture of equipment health indicators such as vibration, temperature, load, operating patterns and alarms.
Real-time visibility enables early detection of abnormal conditions, allowing teams to intervene before failures occur. As data quality improves and failure histories become structured, predictive models can anticipate likely failure modes and recommend timely interventions, improving MTBF and reducing downtime. Over time, these insights will evolve into prescriptive actions, including spares readiness, maintenance scheduling, and operating parameter adjustments, enabling reliability optimisation with minimal disruption.
A critical success factor is adoption. Predictive insights deliver value only when they are embedded into daily workflows, roles and accountability structures. Without this, they remain insights without action.

In a cost-sensitive market like India, how do cement companies balance digital investment with price competitiveness?
In India’s intensely competitive cement market, digital investments must be tightly linked to tangible business outcomes, particularly cost reduction, service improvement, and faster decision-making.
This balance is achieved by prioritising high-impact use cases such as planning efficiency, logistics optimisation, asset reliability, and process stability, all of which typically deliver quick payback. Equally important is building scalable and governed digital foundations that reduce the marginal cost of rolling out new use cases across plants.
Digitally enabled order management, live despatch visibility, and channel partner platforms also improve customer centricity while controlling cost-to-serve, allowing service levels to improve without proportionate increases in headcount or overheads.
In essence, the most effective digital investments do not add cost. They protect margins by reducing variability, improving planning accuracy, and strengthening execution discipline.

How is digitalisation enabling measurable reductions in energy consumption, emissions, and overall carbon footprint?
Digitalisation plays a pivotal role in improving energy efficiency, reducing emissions and lowering overall carbon intensity.
Real-time monitoring and analytics enable near real-time tracking of energy consumption and critical operating parameters, allowing inefficiencies to be identified quickly and corrective actions to be implemented. Centralised data consolidation across plants enables benchmarking, accelerates best-practice adoption, and drives consistent improvements in energy performance.
Improved asset reliability through predictive maintenance reduces unplanned downtime and process instability, directly lowering energy losses. Digital platforms also support more effective planning and control of renewable energy sources and waste heat recovery systems, reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
Most importantly, digitalisation enables sustainability progress to be tracked with greater accuracy and consistency, supporting long-term ESG commitments.

What role does digital supply chain visibility play in managing demand volatility and regional market dynamics in India?
Digital supply chain visibility is critical in India, where demand is highly regional, seasonality is pronounced, and logistics constraints can shift rapidly.
At Shree Cement, planning operates across multiple horizons. Annual planning focuses on capacity, network footprint and medium-term demand. Monthly S&OP aligns demand, production and logistics, while daily scheduling drives execution-level decisions on despatch, sourcing and prioritisation.
As digital maturity increases, this structure is being augmented by central command-and-control capabilities that manage exceptions such as plant constraints, demand spikes, route disruptions and order prioritisation. Planning is also shifting from aggregated averages to granular, cost-to-serve and exception-based decision-making, improving responsiveness, lowering logistics costs and strengthening service reliability.

How prepared is the current workforce for Industry 4.0, and what reskilling strategies are proving most effective?
Workforce preparedness for Industry 4.0 is improving, though the primary challenge lies in scaling capabilities consistently across diverse roles.
The most effective approach is to define capability requirements by role and tailor enablement accordingly. Senior leadership focuses on digital literacy for governance, investment prioritisation, and value tracking. Middle management is enabled to use analytics for execution discipline and adoption. Frontline sales and service teams benefit from
mobile-first tools and KPI-driven workflows, while shop-floor and plant teams focus on data-driven operations, APC usage, maintenance discipline, safety and quality routines.
Personalised, role-based learning paths, supported by on-ground champions and a clear articulation of practical benefits, drive adoption far more effectively than generic training programmes.

Which emerging digital technologies will fundamentally reshape cement manufacturing in the next decade?
AI and GenAI are expected to have the most significant impact, particularly when combined with connected operations and disciplined processes.
Key technologies likely to reshape the sector include GenAI and agentic AI for faster root-cause analysis, knowledge access, and standardisation of best practices; industrial foundation models that learn patterns across large sensor datasets; digital twins that allow simulation of process changes before implementation; and increasingly autonomous control systems that integrate sensors, AI, and APC to maintain stability with minimal manual intervention.
Over time, this will enable more centralised monitoring and management of plant operations, supported by strong processes, training and capability-building.

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Concrete

Redefining Efficiency with Digitalisation

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February 20, 2026

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Professor Procyon Mukherjee discusses how as the cement industry accelerates its shift towards digitalisation, data-driven technologies are becoming the mainstay of sustainability and control across the value chain.

The cement industry, long perceived as traditional and resistant to change, is undergoing a profound transformation driven by digital technologies. As global infrastructure demand grows alongside increasing pressure to decarbonise and improve productivity, cement manufacturers are adopting data-centric tools to enhance performance across the value chain. Nowhere is this shift more impactful than in grinding, which is the energy-intensive final stage of cement production, and in the materials that make grinding more efficient: grinding media and grinding aids.

The imperative for digitalisation
Cement production accounts for roughly 7 per cent to 8 per cent of global CO2 emissions, largely due to the energy intensity of clinker production and grinding processes. Digital solutions, such as AI-driven process controls and digital twins, are helping plants improve stability, cut fuel use and reduce emissions while maintaining consistent product quality. In one deployment alongside ABB’s process controls at a Heidelberg plant in Czechia, AI tools cut fuel use by 4 per cent and emissions by 2 per cent, while also improving operational stability.
Digitalisation in cement manufacturing encompasses a suite of technologies, broadly termed as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), AI and machine learning, predictive analytics, cloud-based platforms, advanced process control and digital twins, each playing a role in optimising various stages of production from quarrying to despatch.

Grinding: The crucible of efficiency and cost
Of all the stages in cement production, grinding is among the most energy-intensive, historically consuming large amounts of electricity and representing a significant portion of plant operating costs. As a result, optimising grinding operations has become central to digital transformation strategies.
Modern digital systems are transforming grinding mills from mechanical workhorses into intelligent, interconnected assets. Sensors throughout the mill measure parameters such as mill load, vibration, mill speed, particle size distribution, and power consumption. This real-time data, fed into machine learning and advanced process control (APC) systems, can dynamically adjust operating conditions to maintain optimal throughput and energy usage.
For example, advanced grinding systems now predict inefficient conditions, such as impending mill overload, by continuously analysing acoustic and vibration signatures. The system can then proactively adjust clinker feed rates and grinding media distribution to sustain optimal conditions, reducing energy consumption and improving consistency.

Digital twins: Seeing grinding in the virtual world
One of the most transformative digital tools applied in cement grinding is the digital twin, which a real-time virtual replica of physical equipment and processes. By integrating sensor data and
process models, digital twins enable engineers to simulate process variations and run ‘what-if’
scenarios without disrupting actual production. These simulations support decisions on variables such as grinding media charge, mill speed and classifier settings, allowing optimisation of energy use and product fineness.
Digital twins have been used to optimise kilns and grinding circuits in plants worldwide, reducing unplanned downtime and allowing predictive maintenance to extend the life of expensive grinding assets.

Grinding media and grinding aids in a digital era
While digital technologies improve control and prediction, materials science innovations in grinding media and grinding aids have become equally crucial for achieving performance gains.
Grinding media, which comprise the balls or cylinders inside mills, directly influence the efficiency of clinker comminution. Traditionally composed of high-chrome cast iron or forged steel, grinding media account for nearly a quarter of global grinding media consumption by application, with efficiency improvements translating directly to lower energy intensity.
Recent advancements include ceramic and hybrid media that combine hardness and toughness to reduce wear and energy losses. For example, manufacturers such as Sanxin New Materials in China and Tosoh Corporation in Japan have developed sub-nano and zirconia media with exceptional wear resistance. Other innovations include smart media embedded with sensors to monitor wear, temperature, and impact forces in real time, enabling predictive maintenance and optimal media replacement scheduling. These digitally-enabled media solutions can increase grinding efficiency by as much as 15 per cent.
Complementing grinding media are grinding aids, which are chemical additives that improve mill throughput and reduce energy consumption by altering the surface properties of particles, trapping air, and preventing re-agglomeration. Technology leaders like SIKA AG and GCP Applied Technologies have invested in tailored grinding aids compatible with AI-driven dosing platforms that automatically adjust additive concentrations based on real-time mill conditions. Trials in South America reported throughput improvements nearing 19 per cent when integrating such digital assistive dosing with process control systems.
The integration of grinding media data and digital dosing of grinding aids moves the mill closer to a self-optimising system, where AI not only predicts media wear or energy losses but prescribes optimal interventions through automated dosing and operational adjustments.

Global case studies in digital adoption
Several cement companies around the world exemplify digital transformation in practice.
Heidelberg Materials has deployed digital twin technologies across global plants, achieving up to 15 per cent increases in production efficiency and 20 per cent reductions in energy consumption by leveraging real-time analytics and predictive algorithms.
Holcim’s Siggenthal plant in Switzerland piloted AI controllers that autonomously adjusted kiln operations, boosting throughput while reducing specific energy consumption and emissions.
Cemex, through its AI and predictive maintenance initiatives, improved kiln availability and reduced maintenance costs by predicting failures before they occurred. Global efforts also include AI process optimisation initiatives to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact.

Challenges and the road ahead
Despite these advances, digitalisation in cement grinding faces challenges. Legacy equipment may lack sensor readiness, requiring retrofits and edge-cloud connectivity upgrades. Data governance and integration across plants and systems remains a barrier for many mid-tier producers. Yet, digital transformation statistics show momentum: more than half of cement companies have implemented IoT sensors for equipment monitoring, and digital twin adoption is growing rapidly as part of broader Industry 4.0 strategies.
Furthermore, as digital systems mature, they increasingly support sustainability goals: reduced energy use, optimised media consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions. By embedding intelligence into grinding circuits and material inputs like grinding aids, cement manufacturers can strike a balance between efficiency and environmental stewardship.
Conclusion
Digitalisation is not merely an add-on to cement manufacturing. It is reshaping the competitive and sustainability landscape of an industry often perceived as inertia-bound. With grinding representing a nexus of energy intensity and cost, digital technologies from sensor networks and predictive analytics to digital twins offer new levers of control. When paired with innovations in grinding media and grinding aids, particularly those with embedded digital capabilities, plants can achieve unprecedented gains in efficiency, predictability and performance.
For global cement producers aiming to reduce costs and carbon footprints simultaneously, the future belongs to those who harness digital intelligence not just to monitor operations, but to optimise and evolve them continuously.

About the author:
Professor Procyon Mukherjee, ex-CPO Lafarge-Holcim India, ex-President Hindalco, ex-VP Supply Chain Novelis Europe, has been an industry leader in logistics, procurement, operations and supply chain management. His career spans 38 years starting from Philips, Alcan Inc (Indian Aluminum Company), Hindalco, Novelis and Holcim. He authored the book, ‘The Search for Value in Supply Chains’. He serves now as Visiting Professor in SP Jain Global, SIOM and as the Adjunct Professor at SBUP. He advises leading Global Firms including Consulting firms on SCM and Industrial Leadership and is a subject matter expert in aluminum and cement. An Alumnus of IIM Calcutta and Jadavpur University, he has completed the LH Senior Leadership Programme at IVEY Academy at Western University, Canada.

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