PwC India’s alliance with Claroty places a growing urban risk in sharper focus: the systems that keep factories, hospitals, utilities and other essential operations running are increasingly connected to the same digital environments that businesses use for information, communication and control. The partnership, announced on September 9, is intended to help organisations manage cybersecurity across information technology, operational technology and wider connected environments.
The announcement is commercial, but the issue it identifies is structural. As industrial systems, connected devices and Internet of Things deployments become part of everyday operations, cybersecurity is no longer limited to protecting databases, office networks or customer information. It also concerns the availability and safety of physical processes. A disruption to an operational technology environment can affect production, service continuity and, in some settings, the delivery of essential services.
PwC India and Claroty said their alliance will combine Claroty’s capabilities in cyber-physical systems protection with PwC India’s expertise in cybersecurity, risk, business transformation and operational technology security. The stated objective is to help organisations improve visibility across connected assets, strengthen resilience and respond to changing cyber risks. The companies identified manufacturing, energy, utilities, healthcare and other critical infrastructure sectors as relevant areas for the collaboration.
That combination reflects the way modern infrastructure is managed. Operational technology refers to systems that monitor or control physical processes, including industrial control systems and connected equipment. Information technology, by contrast, generally supports data, applications and enterprise communications. The boundary between the two has become less distinct as organisations adopt remote monitoring, digital management tools, cloud-linked systems and connected devices. The supplied announcement does not quantify this convergence in India, but it describes the resulting environment as broader and more exposed than a conventional corporate network.
The distinction matters because the consequences of a cyber incident can extend beyond data loss. The companies said attacks on connected operational environments could disrupt operations, compromise safety and cause financial and reputational damage. Claroty’s APJ general manager, Eddie Stefanescu, said operational technology systems were becoming more attractive targets for attackers seeking to cause real-world damage by disrupting essential services. His statement was made as part of the alliance announcement and was not accompanied by incident data or an independently verified assessment of attack volumes.
For cities, the relevant question is not only whether an organisation has cybersecurity software. It is whether the institutions and operators behind essential urban services can identify the assets connected to their networks, understand how those assets interact, and maintain operations when part of the system is compromised. The announcement presents visibility and resilience as central requirements, particularly where modern digital systems coexist with legacy operational technology. It does not specify which Indian organisations will use the partnership’s services, what systems will be assessed or how resilience will be measured.
Sundareshwar Krishnamurthy, partner and India cyber leader at PwC India, said that trust, resilience and security were becoming integral to business growth and transformation as organisations became more connected and digitised. He linked confidence in critical operations to business continuity, customer trust and India’s competitiveness as a manufacturing and digital hub. The statement connects cybersecurity with economic infrastructure, but the announcement provides no financial projections, implementation timetable or public-sector commitment.
Amanjit Makesh, PwC India’s partner for OT cybersecurity, said clients were seeking more than point solutions and wanted partners with an understanding of industrial operations and cyber risk. He described PwC India’s role as bringing advisory, execution and industry context, while Claroty would provide visibility and control for modern and legacy operational technology environments. This division of capabilities is the central commercial proposition of the alliance. Whether it produces measurable improvements will depend on the organisations involved, the systems covered and the way security controls are implemented.
John Ryan, Claroty’s vice-president for worldwide partner ecosystem, said the company’s artificial-intelligence-powered platform, combined with PwC India’s expertise, would offer organisations a broader approach to reducing risk and improving operational resilience. The announcement does not explain the platform’s specific functions, the data it would process or the safeguards governing its use. It also does not establish whether the partnership includes a new product, a fixed service offering or a framework that will be adapted for individual clients.
The policy and administrative challenge is that responsibility for connected infrastructure is distributed. Asset owners, technology vendors, consultants, operators and public authorities may each control different parts of a system. A utility, hospital or industrial facility can rely on equipment supplied by multiple manufacturers while also using enterprise software, telecommunications links and external service providers. The supplied material does not set out a governance model for these relationships, but the alliance’s emphasis on IT, OT and extended connected environments indicates that the companies see fragmented visibility as a practical security problem.
That fragmentation also complicates continuity planning. Protecting a connected asset is not the same as protecting a conventional office endpoint. Operational systems may have long replacement cycles, strict availability requirements and direct links to machinery or physical processes. They may also include legacy equipment that cannot be treated like a modern computer. Makesh’s reference to modern and legacy OT environments points to this difficulty, although the announcement contains no inventory of legacy systems in India and no assessment of their condition.
The available evidence therefore supports a limited conclusion. The PwC India–Claroty alliance is a new commercial collaboration focused on cyber-physical systems, operational technology and critical infrastructure. It responds to a documented shift in which industrial, healthcare, energy, utility and manufacturing environments are becoming more connected. The material does not establish that the alliance has already protected a named facility, reduced a measured risk or responded to a specific cyberattack.
That distinction is important for evaluating such announcements. Cybersecurity partnerships often use the language of resilience, visibility and continuity, but those terms become meaningful only when linked to defined assets, tested procedures, response times and operational outcomes. None of those metrics is provided in the announcement. The immediate development is therefore the formation of the alliance, not evidence of a change in the security posture of India’s critical infrastructure.
The larger urban question is how cities and essential-service operators will manage the physical consequences of digital dependence. Manufacturing systems, healthcare facilities, utilities and commercial operations increasingly rely on connected control environments, yet the responsibilities for securing them remain spread across institutions and vendors. The partnership highlights that challenge without resolving it. Its significance will ultimately depend on the organisations it serves, the infrastructure it covers and the evidence made available about implementation and results.
For now, the next developments to monitor are the sectors and clients covered by the collaboration, the operational technology environments it assesses, and whether PwC India and Claroty publish measurable outcomes from deployments. The announcement confirms the partnership and its stated scope; it does not yet provide evidence about its effectiveness or its impact on any specific Indian infrastructure system.
