CDCPIndia DBIvx 2026 - Speaking the Same Language

*Speaking the Same Language: Interoperability through Open BIM* Hosted by BuildingSMART India and CDCPIndia, this webinar featured host Ms. Arti Daga and speaker Mr. Ankan Karmakar of IIT Bombay. It addressed the persistent problem of data silos and proprietary file formats that cause information loss at every project handoff. Fragmentation across disciplines, project phases and successive projects leads to rework, reduced accuracy and long-term vendor lock-in. Proprietary formats evolve rapidly and often lack backward compatibility, forcing costly remapping or continued dependence on specific software vendors even decades later. The solution is Open BIM—a collaborative, vendor-neutral approach centred on Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). IFC acts as a common data language: teams author in their preferred tools, export to the open schema, and exchange information without loss of geometry, properties or relationships. Supporting standards such as Information Delivery Specifications (IDS) and the BuildingSMART Data Dictionary (bSDD) ensure required attributes are present and consistently defined. Key benefits include seamless multi-platform collaboration, data longevity across a building’s 50-year lifecycle, technological sovereignty through open formats, and the foundation for automated code compliance. India holds a strategic advantage: by adopting open standards early, it can avoid the later conversion costs faced by markets that first locked into proprietary systems. While real-time data integration is still maturing and data quality depends on disciplined early modelling, the path forward is clear. Mandating open BIM with realistic timelines, coupled with training and academic collaboration, will break silos, reduce waste and equip the industry for Viksit Bharat 2047.