India is the sixth-largest producer of chemicals in the world, enjoying a compound annual growth rate of 11–12% by 2027.Employing more than 2 million people, the industry produces a wide range of specialty chemicals, API (active pharmaceutical ingredients), agrochemicals, and flavors and fragrances.
As the sector grows, it faces increased international competition—and in this environment, functional excellence in research and development (R&D) can offer a critical business advantage. Improving R&D efficiency will be essential to enable Indian chemical companies to scale their output to contend in the global marketplace.
Jun Liu, Director, Chemicals & Materials Solutions at Revvity Signals, explores the transformative impact of digital technologies on R&D workflows in the chemical industry. He emphasizes how Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) like Signals Notebook streamline processes, enhance collaboration, and support regulatory compliance, ultimately driving greater productivity and business efficiency.
Transforming to digital technologies
Traditionally, R&D teams have relied on basic unstructured data capture tools – spreadsheets, PDFs, email, digital images, and even paper notebooks – to organize their work. For large, fast-growing teams, the lack of unified, organized workflows can soon become a challenge all of its own, with limited control of processes, documentation and information.
Increasingly, the sector is adopting Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) solutions, which provide a fully structured digital working environment to manage every aspect of R&D, from experiment design to AI-powered analytics and regulatory compliance.
In recent years, ELNs have emerged as a powerful tool for streamlining R&D workflows and improving data management. ELNs are designed to help researchers work more productively in an environment where data collection and analysis is increasingly, and sometimes exclusively, digital.The newest solutions rely on cloud technologies, delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS), enabling data to be accessed and updated from any location – a key advantage for employees and their collaborators across the globe.
Case Studies in the Chemical Industry
Aarti Industries and PI Industries are Indian chemical companies that have adopted ELNs and have experienced significant productivity gains as a result.
Aarti Industries in Mumbai, which specializes in specialty chemicals, uses Signals Notebook to improve the accessibility of experimental data, to support regulatory compliance, and to meet ISO certification standards. Vinod Shivanand Honmute, Head of R&D Excellence remarks, “After deploying Signals Notebook, previously tacit knowledge is now available to everyone with a click of a button.”
PI Industries, a fast-growing agrochemicals specialist based in Gurugram, Haryana, chose Signals Notebook as its core platform to enable collaboration within their company and with external partners. This solution, which includes Signals Notebook, provides what amounts to a shared language and resource, able to extend to third parties under full control of the PI Industries team.
NATCO Pharma, headquartered in Hyderabad, manufactures generic pharmaceuticals and is another Indian chemical company now deploying Signals Notebook to help accelerate product development and improve regulatory approvals processes. Rama Seshagiri Rao, Manager of Data Quality Assurance, emphasizes, “To remain competitive in the generic pharma industry, we need to quickly complete R&D, technology transfer, lab validation, and plant validation, and then file the product with the different regulatory agencies. Signals Notebook is fulfilling all of these expectations.”
Key Considerations for Selecting an ELN
There are three main factors to consider when selecting an ELN: functionality, integration, and scalability.
Functionality: An ELN must meet the specific needs of your research team, including features for data capture, analysis, and collaboration. Understanding the tasks, processes, and data types will help to select an ELN that merges seamlessly with your workflow. For example, you might need an ELN that can capture your chemicals value chain, or one that can restrict visibility of experimental data to specific groups of users.
Integration: Look for an ELN that can integrate with your existing laboratory instruments and software. Ensuring instrumentation compatibility will improve data exchange by automating previously manual processes and can help to eliminate data errors.
Scalability: As workload grows, the nature and volume of R&D processes and regulations may also change. Selecting an ELN that is able to flex capacity easily will be an important future consideration. Equally, as your partner ecosystem expands, you may need an ELN that makes it easy to collaborate securely with contract partners at multiple locations.
With a modern, cloud-based ELN delivered on the SaaS model, companies can vastly improve data management, collaboration, efficiency, and compliance – ultimately, helping to deliver the next era of breakthroughs.
Signals Notebook from Revvity Signals
Signals Notebook offers a comprehensive range of integrated components designed to support R&D workflows, with extensive resources for chemicals research. For example, Signals Notebook includes automated data capture, integration with a wide range of internal and external reference sources and databases, embedded ChemDraw software and Spotfire data visualization, and a host of collaboration and management functionality.
In addition, as a SaaS solution, Signals Notebook enables users to start small and scale big, with nothing more than a modern web browser and a reliable internet connection. For global teams looking to accelerate R&D programs, Signals Notebook provides a clean, intuitive interface, ready to power the next generation of research.