India, a land of emerging opportunities, has huge resources in the form of manufacturing hubs, innovations and technology transfer to facilitate Industry 4.0. India is a source of manufacturing hub with several advantages such as:
Home for young labour
Rich natural repository
Smooth governance
Sustainability for responsible development
Growing digital penetration and technological adaption
The MSME sector contributes 29% to India’s GDP and the government plans to take it to 50% in the next five years. India has a vibrant ecosystem in the form of technological infrastructures as Centre of Excellence/ Common Engineering Facility Centre (CEFC) / Demon centre to showcase and train the talent development in the disruptive technologies of Industry 4.0. The Government of India has initiated several centres under different capital good schemes to establish the centre of excellence, thereby promoting technological innovations in deep tech of Industry 4.0, such as cyber-physical systems, edge computing, machine tools, data analytics and many more.
The Government of India has pioneered to initiate national policies to promote Industry 4.0, which are as follows:
Advanced manufacturing
Internet of Things (IoT)
Blockchain
Cyber-physical systems
Artificial Intelligence
The national policies have the main objective to promote Industry 4.0 technologies, thereby facilitating talent developments. So, there is a need to develop course content development to align with the national policies of Industry 4.0 and thereby, reskill and upskill young minds. The All India Council for Technical Education, several sector skill councils and premier institutions have successfully framed the curriculum and course syllabus synergised with national policies of Industry 4.0. In addition to the above, several Government of India organisations, such as National Productivity Council, Quality Council of India and industry associations, such as PHD Chamber of Commerce, FICCI, ASSOCHAM & CII have been developing learning content, conducting and promoting the importance of Industry 4.0. The National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), too, has developed online learning content on several technologies of Industry 4.0. Electronics and ICT academy, an initiative of the Government of India, has been training students through online mode in several domains of Industry 4.0.
Centre of Excellence / Common Engineering Facility Centres supported by GoI
Centre of Excellence / Common Engineering Facility Centres supported by GoI The Department of Heavy Industries (DHI), Government of India, has successfully initiated the Capital Goods scheme called Samarth Udyog Bharat 4.0 to pioneer and adopt the best practices of Industry 4.0. DHI has initiated the pilot schemes to enhance the competitiveness in the Indian capital goods sector through the following pillars of strength:
Advanced Centre of Excellence.
Integrated industrial infrastructure facilities.
Common engineering facility centres.
Testing and certification centres.
Technology acquisition fund schemes.
The objectives of the above schemes are outlined below:
To promote technological innovations in the field of Industry 4.0.
To achieve cost effectiveness in the product/process development.
To benefit different stakeholders, including Indian MSMEs.
To transfer the technology to society for the benefit of mankind.
To connect talents with cutting-edge infrastructures.
To strengthen knowledge and skill through experts.
To connect academia-industry-government on one platform.
To achieve national gain and accelerate the Indian economy.
Strategies & approach for the utilisation of the centres for talent development
The Government of India has established the Centres of Excellence (CoE) in Industry 4.0. So, there is a demand to have cluster integration with the following centres:
Samarth Udyog Bharat 4.0 CoE and CEFC
MSME Technology Development Centres
Software Technology Parks of India
CoE for 4th Industrial Revolution by Work Economic Forum
NASSCOM CoE
National Productivity Council
Advanced Manufacturing automation by Ministry of Railways (Integral Coach Factory)
These centres have been playing a pivotal role to train the young minds on disruptive technologies.
Research outcomes of the CEFC
DHI has also established CEFC to facilitate the technological innovations and thereby, transfer the technology to industries through partnership model. The outcomes of these facilitation centres are:
Technological innovations in Industry 4.0.
Development of emerging technologies in several domains.
Transfer of technologies to the industries.
Facilitate start-ups and entrepreneurship.
Connect students through educational programmes.
Skill development in cutting-edge technologies.
I4.0 infrastructure & research projects of CoE
CoE in automated manufacturing established as Technical Training Centre by the Ministry of Railways at Integral Coach Factory at Raebarelli has several technological infrastructures, such as Mechatronics (pneumatics, electrohydraulic, Programmable Logic Controllers, sensors & actuators, power electronics), automation (bio-vacuum toilet simulator, LHB coach braking system) and robotics (pick and place robots).
The CoE for the fourth industrial revolution by the World Economic Forum at Mumbai promotes the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, drones and tomorrow’s air space, Internet of Things and robotics as well as the smart cities. The CoE established by Software Technology Parks of India has developed cutting-edge infrastructure in different technological Industry 4.0, thereby promoting the culture of entrepreneurship and technological start-ups in India. The NASSCOM Centre of Excellence, which is the initiative of the Government of India, has been in the forefront to promote technological innovations in the field of IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, data analytics, AR/VR and also tinker with development kits from Texas Instruments, BOSCH, Intel, Qualcom and CISCO. NASSCOM has several success stories with start-ups in different potential applications that include healthcare applications as well.
MSMEs being the vibrant backbone of India, have established technology development centres and tool rooms to promote technological cultures. The centre has been actively developing technologies and delivering training in the field of rapid prototyping, forging, testing and calibration & tool component manufacturing. The Government of India has also successfully modelled smart factory at IISc Bangalore and IIT Delhi to showcase Industry 4.0 technologies and thereby, promote technological innovations and train for talent development.
Industry partners with CoE
The technological innovations at CoE have been successfully transferred to industries with several partners such as:
CoE at IISc Bangalore TCS, Yaskawa, Faurecia, Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) and Ashok Leyland)
CoE at IIT Madras (MTAB, Chennai Metco, Interface Design Associates)
CoE at PSG College of Technology (Effica Systems, PSG Industrial Institute, enArka Instruments & Systems, MAK Controls & systems, Omega Weld Rods Systems, Thirumala Electrodes Co)
FSM at IIT Delhi (Parametric Technology Corporation, KUKA India, SingEx Exhibitions India, Pepperl+Fuchs FAPL, Adroitec Information Systems, B&R Industrial Automation, Rockwell Automation India, Quality Council of India, Mitsubishi Electric India, Festo India)
Development of Industry 4.0 training modules by CoE
The Centre of Excellence at C4i4 labs, Pune, has been developing e-learning modules to train development and industry leaders in the field of Industry 4.0:
Digital transformation in manufacturing
Data science for manufacturing
Product design for Industry 4.0
Customer experience for Industry 4.0
Skill development
The Common Engineering Facility at HMT Machine Tools has taken several initiatives in the field of skill development. The centre has been conducting training under the HMT-Shramev Jayate Initiative (HMT-SJI).
Technology Acquisition Fund program supported by DHI
The Technology Acquisition Fund programme supported by DHI, Government of India has the following success stories:
Development of four guided way CNC lathe by HMT MTL
Development of turn mill centre & integrated high precession C-axis on the main spindle by HMT MTL
Manufacturing of heavy duty high reliability electrical specialised power by allied engineering, New Delhi
Cutting-edge robotic laser cladding technology by Industrial Processor & Metallizers, New Delhi
Development & commercialisation of titanium casting with ceramic shelling technology by PTC Industries, Lucknow
Demo centre by Confederation of Indian Industry
In addition to the above, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has established a demon centre (See Figure above) through partnership industry leaders to accelerate Industry 4.0 in India.
Industry 4.0 readiness tools
In order to assess the Indian industry that includes MSMEs, capable to have manufacturing transformation of Industry 4.0, there are several organisations that developed Industry 4.0 readiness tools online:
National Productivity Council
FICCI
C4i4 Labs (supported by DHI)
Infosys
There is a demand to develop such tools by academic institutions, especially as pilot projects by students and faculty members, in collaboration with the Government of India and industries as well. This will help enhance the talent development of students.
Integrated achieved outcomes & the way forward
The Centre of Excellence acts as the building blocks and epicentre for industrial growth and momentum for Industry 4.0 in the country. It trains researchers and young minds with the existing infrastructure and creates employment opportunities. It promotes start-ups and leapfrogs on the technologies through vocational based education. Plus, it connects the academia-industry- government on one platform.
