Process Safety

Safety and Risk Management today is a high-order science that relies on extremely sophisticated computational tools. Modern risk analysis requires advanced 2D and 3D simulation software based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), capable of running millions of simulations to quantify risk under a wide range of operating and accident scenarios. Such tools have been developed by a handful of technologically advanced countries, involving teams of highly qualified scientists working continuously over several years. Validation of these tools through full-scale experimental testing further adds to their complexity and cost.

The acquisition and use of these imported software systems are expensive and impose a heavy financial burden on both large and small Indian companies. Annual Renewal License fees are prohibitively expensive, sometimes amounting to nearly the cost of the base software itself. In addition, operating these tools requires extensive training, often running into several months, adding further cost and dependency. As a result, India today lacks indigenous software tools for comprehensive risk analysis, as well as advanced AI-driven training facilities using Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). This dependence has become a strategic vulnerability.

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Increasingly frequent technology sanctions and restrictions imposed by advanced countries ~ even on Indian engineering and defence organisations ~ have disrupted access to critical safety and risk-analysis tools, directly affecting operational continuity. This is particularly alarming given that India hosts some of the world’s largest and most complex industrial facilities, including refineries, petrochemical complexes, fertilizer plants, offshore and onshore oil and gas installations, and other high-risk process industries. Any major accident in these sectors can result in catastrophic loss of life, large-scale destruction of assets, severe environmental damage, and long-term reputational harm to both the company and the nation.

At the same time, India is rapidly expanding into new and advanced energy domains such as green hydrogen, bio-ethanol, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), nuclear energy, solar, wind, and hydropower. These sectors are central to accelerating GDP growth and achieving India’s vision of becoming a developed nation by 2047. However, many of these technologies ~ particularly green hydrogen ~ carry new and complex risk profiles that demand state-of-the-art safety science, modelling, and trained manpower. Indianization of safety and risk analysis, therefore, is not optional; it is both urgent and essential. The tragic Bhopal gas disaster remains a stark reminder of the consequences of inadequate risk assessment and safety governance.

Thousands lost their lives, and the environmental and health impacts persist even decades later. Despite this, serious industrial accidents continue to occur across the country, often with little evidence of institutional learning. Yet, India still lacks a permanent national mechanism for institutional learning from industrial accidents. Each major accident must be scientifically audited by centres of higher learning, and the findings ~ along with actionable recommendations ~ should be published on a national portal to ensure that the same failures are not repeated elsewhere.

International experience offers clear lessons. Advanced countries have established independent Centres of Excellence in Process Safety and Risk Analysis because such highly specialized knowledge cannot be sustainably developed within individual companies. Institutions such as GexCon (Norway) and Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Centre (USA) act as extended arms of industry, supported collectively to conduct continuous research, develop validated software, and operate advanced fire and explosion laboratories. These centres also run immersive VR/AR-based training programs and conduct controlled fire and explosion experiments in secured test facilities to validate new models and safety concepts. In contrast, safety studies in India are often outsourced to foreign consultants at exorbitant costs. Even then, many companies ~ under cost pressure ~ treat risk analysis as a mere compliance exercise.

Reports are frequently prepared without access to validated software or trained manpower, resulting in “cut-and-paste” documents that provide little real safety value. During my tenure as Chairman of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) process under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, I saw that it was mandatory for every new or expansion project to submit a safety and risk analysis. I observed that a majority of submissions lacked scientific rigor and meaningful analysis, highlighting a systemic vacuum in national risk-analysis capability.

this gap, I initiated efforts to establish indigenous Centres of Excellence in Process Safety at IIT (Delhi), IIT Roorkee, Shriram Institute of Industrial Research, and UPL University of Sustainable Technology in Ankleshwar, Gujarat. In parallel, discussions were held with industry leaders, including Reliance, to explore support for a national-level centre comparable to leading international institutions. With the support of PHDCCI, we also organized multiple international conferences on green hydrogen, bio-ethanol, bio -thermoplastics, and sustainable aviation fuels, and contributed to several technical publications to strengthen the national discourse with a specific focus on Process Safety.

These efforts have now culminated in the establishment of a Centre of Excellence in Process Safety in collaboration with IIT Roorkee, with encouragement from the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Prof. Ajay Sood, and industrial support from Kajaria, Saket Dalmia, and Hindustan Graphite. The Centre is developing India’s indigenous risk-analysis software platform named “Agni Kawach”, supported by advanced laboratories, experimental testing facilities, and immersive VR/AR-based training infrastructure. The Centre will work in close coordination with the National Disaster Management Authority and national fire-fighting institutions to strengthen preparedness and resilience across the country. India will require more than 100,000 highly trained operators and safety professionals in the coming years to safely manage advanced fuels such as green hydrogen and other emerging energy carriers.

The Indianization of risk analysis ~ through indigenous software, accredited testing facilities, and world-class training ecosystem ~ is therefore not merely desirable but a strategic imperative. It calls for urgent policy support, decisive public and private investment, and sustained high level collaboration between industry-academia and government. Safety cannot remain an imported capability in a sovereign nation; it must be built, owned, and advanced in India. A nation that engineers its own safety frameworks ultimately secures its industrial future, its people, and its global standing.

DR. J P GUPTA

The writer is Director, Green Hydrogen Energy Services Pvt. Ltd., Managing Director, Greenstat Hydrogen India Pvt. Ltd., chair, Environment & Climate Change Committee, PHDCCI, and former Chairman, EAC ~ Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change. He can be reached at jpglobalconsulting group@gmail.com