Pune: India’s Secretary of Defence Production, Sanjeev Kumar, on Friday said industrial accidents in India’s defence, explosives and propellant manufacturing sector are a result of human complacency, advocating for more automation and digital technology to ensure complete elimination of it.Addressing a national seminar on industrial safety in the explosives sector, Kumar called for a “zero-accident” approach. “We are using the word eliminated very consciously. Reducing or mitigating accidents is not enough because the loss of human life is irreparable. Financial compensation can never compensate for the emotional and mental trauma suffered by families,” Kumar said.The seminar was organised following a series of accidents in defence public sector units and other industries over the past few years that prompted the government to review it’s safety architecture. As per the Ministry of Defence records, about 62 industrial accidents were reported at ordnance factories across the country in 2024, 75 in 2023, 83 in 2022, 74 in 2021 and 54 in 2020. These incidents records in ordnance factories in Maharashtra as well.He said a committee comprising officials from the Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) of DRDO and other organisations examined the issue and found India’s safety and regulatory framework were “broadly adequate”. “The problem is not the lack of standards but of conscious and sincere implementation of them. Workers who spend years performing the same hazardous processes often become complacent, resulting in deviations from prescribed safety procedures and protocols. To minimise human error, there must be greater deployment of automation and digital technologies across explosives manufacturing plants,” Kumar said.He advocated for increased adoption of technology including CCTV surveillance, sensors, automated monitoring systems, real-time transmission of operational data, predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to continuously supervise processes and identify potential hazards before accidents occur. “Instead of depending entirely on human supervision, we should enable automated systems that continuously monitor, control and correct processes with minimal human intervention. Predictive monitoring of machinery, processes and even human behaviour should be used to strengthen current standards” Kumar said.He asked industry leaders to treat safety as the highest priority while expanding manufacturing capacity.
