Siemens India is betting big on digitalisation, mobility, and smart infrastructure

Siemens India, the leading industrial and digital tech powerhouse valued at over Rs 1 lakh crore, is redefining its identity and strategy in one of the most dynamic periods in the $4 trillion economy.

“We were known for motors, drives and automation. Now we’ve moved beyond that to automation, digitalisation, and up the value chain into artificial intelligence, machine learning and the industrial metaverse,” says Sunil Mathur, CEO and managing director, Siemens India. The company is transforming itself from being a pure electrical equipment player into a holistic technology powerhouse in line with parent’s strategy of becoming a “ONE Tech Company.”

Building on Siemens’ 175-year legacy of domain expertise across industries, from food and beverage to power, utilities, chemicals, and electronics, the company is now helping clients address their most complex challenges through deeper integration of software, automation, and analytics. Siemens’ decades of experience in equipment supply and automation now allow it to offer digital solutions that address its customers’ most complex operational challenges. “Because we've been supporting them on automation and helping them move up the digitalisation chain now, we have a much deeper understanding and can help them answer some of the biggest challenges,” says Mathur.

Mathur emphasises that India’s resilience through global disruptions, from COVID-19 and semiconductor shortages to geopolitical shocks, has created fertile ground for Siemens’ growth. “India’s GDP growing at 6.5–7 percent, despite global headwinds, is one of the best stories worldwide,” says Mathur.

The company’s two major infrastructure verticals: mobility (covering trains, signaling and electrification) and smart infrastructure (power systems and the energy transition, are deeply tied to India’s capital expenditure boom in roads, ports, railways, and airports.

At the same time, Siemens’ digital industries vertical aims to make India’s manufacturing sector globally competitive. “India is already the software center of the world. We aspire to be the manufacturing center, and that will happen through software-hardware integration. Globally, manufacturing is moving more towards software and hardware integration, and Siemens is at the forefront of that,” says Mathur.

Mathur believes manufacturing is shifting from mass production to ultra-customised, digitally driven processes. Every customer, he explains, wants tailored solutions, and Siemens’ strength lies in combining global technology with local insight to deliver that flexibility. “The conversation is no longer ‘this is what I make, please buy it. It’s now ‘tell me your biggest problem, we’ll give you one solution that combines infrastructure and digital manufacturing,” says Mathur.

Capital allocation & growth

Mathur reaffirmed Siemens’ long-held principle: profitability before growth. “I’ve always maintained profitability will be our main driver and growth will be the enabler for that. Our top line, and bottom line growth over the past 10 years have demonstrated that. But increasingly, as you rightly mentioned, capital allocation is becoming critical,” says Mathur.

To enhance efficiency, Siemens India recently executed a major demerger of its energy business, enabling sharper capital allocation. On whether today’s uncertain environment makes him more cautious about approving investments, Mathur’s reply is characteristically confident. “We are absolutely convinced on the India story. We've seen what's happened in the last 5 years to the India story but more importantly to the Siemens India story. We have grown substantially in the past five years,” says Mathur.

Under this tenure, the company has invested well over €1 billion in India, with average annual CapEx between ₹200 – ₹250 crore, besides large working-capital commitments for the mega ₹26,000-crore order for 1,200 locomotives from the Indian Railways.

For years now, government infrastructure spending has been the main driver of growth, while private capital expenditure remains cautious. Mathur concurs: “Since FY20, the government’s spend on infrastructure has gone from 1–1.5% of GDP to 3.5%. That’s been a huge accelerator.”

While private-sector investment has yet to kick in meaningfully, public projects have improved not just in volume but in execution: “Earlier only 30-40% of budgets got implemented; now its 75-85%. It's no longer about increased announcement, but increased implementation,” says Mathur.

Railways remain a massive opportunity, though Mathur cautions that the sector’s complexity, technology choices, supply chains, and safety, makes reform slower than in roads. Still, he pointed to striking progress: Mathur believes the scale of India’s railway transformation is often underappreciated. Over the past seven to eight years, Indian Railways has electrified around 37,000 kilometres, equivalent to the entire rail network of Germany. “That shows we are not small,” he says, adding that six million passengers travel on Mumbai’s suburban rail network every single day, roughly matching the population of Austria or Switzerland. Managing such a vast, continuously operating system while modernising it presents unique challenges. “While we’d always like things to move faster, where we are today…it’s a sea change. They’re doing a good job,” says Mathur.

The company, post demerger, operates around 25 manufacturing facilities, with expansion underway in the mobility and smart infrastructure businesses with the announcement of two new factories last year. Siemens is also investing in people hiring 1,000-1,500 employees a year and reskilling them for digital roles as part of a broader definition of capital that includes human and intellectual resources.

He believes that consistency and credibility are now India’s greatest strengths and that the sentiment extends to Siemens’ global leadership as well. “Let me put it this way, the global board of Siemens is very upbeat, positive, encouraging, and driving the India business. And that's why I say it'll take two days less. Earlier one had to convince about the India story; now the India story is proven,” says Mathur.

For a company that clocked Rs 23,564 crore turnover last fiscal and profits of Rs 2665 crore, intimately interlinking with the India Growth Story isn’t just a strategy--it’s a playbook that has delivered, and one that will continue to do so.