Centre of Excellence -IoT & AI, Meity (Ministry of Electronics and IT) & DST(Depart of Science and Technology), Govt of Gujarat in collaboration with NASSCOM, today inaugurated the world’s first ‘Smart Manufacturing Competency Centre’ (SMCC) in Ahmedabad, to accelerate the adoption of smart manufacturing solutions by India’s best innovators. The centre was inaugurated by Sri. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship & Electronics and Information Technology.
With the vision to make India Industry 4.0 ready, the centre will help create a collaborative ecosystem that will bring together solution seekers and providers under one virtual roof with an opportunity to understand the manufacturing challenges and co-create solutions. Although the Indian manufacturing sector has started pivoting to digitalization, with US$ 6.5 billion spent on Industry 4.0 in FY21, today, 50% of the tech spent by Indian manufacturers is on Industry 4.0 technologies, a high proportion, but from a fraction of the sector’s total representation, as per NASSCOM report.
Preparing Indian manufacturers for the dynamic digital era, the centre will engage start-ups and technology solution providers to showcase their solution capabilities to senior manufacturing leaders. This will enable SMEs and manufacturing enterprises to experience end to end diverse digital solutions that can improve productivity, efficiency, and safety in plants.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship & Electronics and Information Technology said, “Technological breakthroughs such as Industry 4.0 are going to deeply shape the future of the Indian manufacturing sector. To strengthen the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat, MeitY is committed to propelling technology innovation through startup programs and CoEs and make India a global competitive manufacturing ecosystem.”
Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, said “Today, India’s 90% manufacturing companies are SMEs that account for 33% of manufacturing GVA and 50% of exports, but they lag in tech adoption due to scale, financing, and leadership challenges. Digitalisation is not really a choice today but rather a necessity for the sector to bring business performance stability and broaden its reach. The first of its kind globally, the Smart Manufacturing Competency Centre will foster the right collaborative ecosystem with the support from the government, academia and the industry that will aid the growth of the Indian manufacturing sector and make India a global hub for digital manufacturing.”
Industry 4.0 has become a key necessity for industries to remain globally competitive. While few companies have made considerable progress on digital journey, majority of enterprises are still struggling with competencies in digital manufacturing. SMCC is the largest existing innovation ecosystem that will help accelerate the adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions by bringing together enterprises, government, researchers, and innovators to create awareness and opportunities to network for technology adoption. Manufacturers will be able to experience demos and success stories of large tech enterprises and start-ups, network and meet top solution providers to co-create solutions using emerging technologies such as IoT, data analytics, AI, AR/VR.
