West Bengal: In a move to step-up the Make in India initiative, the Department of Heavy Industries has partnered with IIT-Kharagpur to set up a proposed centre of excellence on advanced manufacturing, a Union Minister said.
The centre of excellence would undertake extensive research in the area of advanced manufacturing in order to gift the country modern, healthy and robust auto, heavy engineering, heavy electrical and capital goods sectors and self-reliant and growth oriented public sector undertakings.
“In comparison to western and southern India, eastern India has a dearth of such centres of excellence…Central government has schemes wherein such centres of excellence will receive 80 per cent funding from the government, while 20 per cent will be raised by various stakeholders, and the facility built could be used by all stakeholders,” Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Babul Supriyo told the media.
Department of Heavy Industries Joint Secretary Vishvajit Sahay said India has set a goal to develop national goods and increase exports from 27 per cent to 40 per cent.
“Many projects are being launched to boost manufacturing towards this end. Through this centre, local industries big or small will work with IIT-Kharagpur for requirement of heavy machineries.”
The Centre will focus on reinvigorating manufacturing in India through technological interventions. It will also boost value additions in terms of innovations in materials, manufacturing processes, new technologies, and bringing academic rigor to industrial and organisational practices.
The Centre will further create an ecosystem for indigenisation and innovations in the manufacturing sector involving small and medium scale enterprises. It will bring in international expertise through partnerships with the best in the world. It will also create the benchmarks for excellence to help the ministry to shape policy decisions.
“The Centre will cater to current and future R&D needs of heavy industries and MSMEs, delivering prototypes of high quality and supporting not just West Bengal but India to carve out a significant place globally. The Institute will do the R&D and share it with the industries for commercialisation. The model will be of a consortium and also promoting start-up culture in this part of the country” said IIT-Kharagpur Director P P Chakrabarti.
Source: Business Standard
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