Optimized Electrotech: Helping Indian Defense with Made In India Border security Technology

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Sandeep Shah Co-Founder & MD at Optimized Electrotech

1.     Can you tell us more about your startup, Optimized Electrotech?

Optimized Electrotech Pvt Ltd is an imaging surveillance technology company, manufacturing indigenously designed and developed Electro- Optical Infra-Red based systems.  we are  Headquartered at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and prototyping and R&D facility at Bengaluru, Karnataka. With Innovation as our backbone, we have indigenously designed, developed, and manufactured Intelligent Surveillance Platforms which have far ranging applications in Land, Air, and Naval Defence Surveillance. The Company is registered with Startup India, MSME and is a venture funded startup.  our founding team has 32 patents and the company has filed for 4 patents of which 2 have been granted.

Aatmanirbhar Bharat is not only our PM’s dream, but  also an idea that resonated  well with all the citizens of India, as it was a latent desire of everyone to bring back the lost glory of India. Make in India not only makes business and security sense, it is also important soft power that brings pride to us and builds brand India globally. We believe that Optimized Electrotech would be a chosen partner for global corporation and defence services and will therefore enrich India with foreign exchange as well as instil pride in our people for doing something extraordinary in security and surveillance globally.

2.     How did you get interested in developing defence and Surveillance products?

India had been importing surveillance equipment forever, I noticed two things between 2012 to 2016. First, that the Chinese were dominating the surveillance market globally and obviously in India as well, second when it came to defence, where China was not a supplier to India, we were still dependent on other foreign countries and spent huge amount of foreign exchange. This seems to be an opportunity to make India self-reliant in this domain, from a cost perspective and security purposes as well.

3.     What kinds of technology do you use in your products, and how do they help with defence and surveillance?

We manufacture Intelligent surveillance platforms, now in a surveillance system, there are three major components, namely Optics, Electronics, & Software. We are one of the few companies who design and develop all three of these components ourselves. We have a key focus on Electro-Optics and Infrared technologies for surveillance, our products cover the entire Electro-magnetic spectrum and thus offer mission critical intelligence in different weather and light conditions. Our products are AI enabled, the AI engine has been developed by us as well. AI enabled products can be used as unmanned systems, this reduces human error, false alarms, and increases situational awareness. Our Edge Analytics onboarded systems also mean that our brave soldiers have enough time to respond in case of an emergency. Our focus area is Defence and homeland security, and as such Indian armed forces and paramilitary forces are our priority customers.

4.     How electro-optics works?

Electro-optics technology involves the practical application of light, optics and electronics. We first need to understand that the Electro-magnetic spectrum has multiple bands, all these bands contain different types of information, the EM spectrum ranges from gamma ray to radio waves; however, we focus on the part of the spectrum that deals with light. This section ranges from Ultra Violet light to Infra Red Light. Humans and most animals can only see a small section of this light band which is called the Visible spectrum, we cannot see the UV nor the IR. It was noticed that the IR spectrum of light contains even more information that we can discern when we realised that IR spectrum can present thermography. Later, we realised that for us to do thermography we don’t even need Visible spectrum, that lead to the development of first rudimentary night sight devices, where basic IR thermography was used to see in the dark. Modern Electro-optics deals with sub parts of the Infrared band as well utilizing information from Short Wave Infra Red, Medium Wave Infra Red, and Long Wave Infra Red. Each of these contain different information, they can be used to look through water droplets increasing visibility in fogs or rain, they can also look through larger distances, and combination of these can enhance and augment a system’s capability. Optimized Electrotech has a patented technology for fusion of images as well which adds an unmatched feather in our hat.

5.     How Optimized Electrotech is helping to enhancing national security?

India has over 22000 Kms of Borders and over 2000 critical installations which need to be monitored and kept under constant surveillance. Our military assets including Land, Air, and naval vehicles also require surveillance, targeting, or optical navigation systems. We are filling in these gaps, we are offering border surveillance systems, critical asset protection systems, targeting systems, and navigation systems. Our systems are highly advanced and are also AI enabled which empowers our soldiers and enhances our national security. AI systems also reduce the manpower required quite significantly. EDGE analytics onboarded systems provide better analytics and thus our heroes have better situational awareness and more reactionary time.

6.     What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced while developing products for defence and surveillance, and how have you overcome them?

The biggest challenge was to build a technology from scratch. We had assumed that we knew the bidding part and therefore the end outcome will be achieved easily. The truth couldn’t be far from this. Even though the building blocks were known, the expectations of the user from the supplier were quite higher as they were used to working with some of the established suppliers of the developed countries. We had to tread the technology curve not only to build something that was acceptable but something that was better than what were the users were used to. This took too long and tested our patience perilously. Thankfully, we were able to do that quite nicely.

7.     How do you balance the need for innovation and development with the strict requirements and regulations in the defence industry?

This is an interesting question for all the Defence manufacturing industries of the world. Finding the balance between what’s saleable and what’s possible is a fine line which so far, we have been able to tread relatively comfortably. We realised that if we lead with innovation alone, the products wouldn’t be feasible on the field. We received immense support from all the sections of the Indian military; Army, Air Force, Navy, and other paramilitary forces which helped us understand their challenges with surveillance security. This understanding of problem statements has helped our team to develop products that are tailor-made for specific situations. Defence Industry faces a lot of regulations, this is absolutely true, we have faced such issues where strict regulations have caused significant delays in processes; however, these strict regulations also maintain a fair policy for everyone. We may see some relaxation in these regulations with this ongoing revolution of Aatmanirbharta in Defence; however, it should not be at the cost of unbiasedness or fairness.

8.     How do you ensure that your products are reliable and effective in high-pressure, high-stakes situations?

Henry Ford once said, “Quality means doing right when no one is looking.”

Our product quality is sustained through the entire manufacturing process because we follow strict processes and rules. We invested heavily not only towards the manufacturing of our products, but also towards the testing of our products, which means that we control the process at each stage with multiple quality checks and assessments. We run physical and simulation tests on our products to ensure that they will perform under the required operating conditions.

9.     What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who are interested in starting a company focused on developing technology for defence and surveillance?

Patience, Perseverance, and Endurance.

Working with the government needs a mindset of complexity management with patience. This culture needs to be imbibed from the get-go. This is a long-haul, it takes a lot of time to see the actual results, so be persistent towards your efforts, and endure the hardships as you go along. There is a sense of pride when you work towards the nation’s defence, which will eventually carry you through.

10.  How do you see your company’s products and technology evolving in the future, and what new capabilities do you hope to add?

Optimized Electrotech continues on the journey of becoming a reputed surveillance company. Our focus area remains as defence and homeland security. We are at the same time working on technologies and products that can have dual use. On the technological forefront, we are working towards a more advanced AI system and looking to miniaturize our own systems for better and more clandestine deployment.