As part of achieving the twin goals of attracting high value-add manufacturing companies and equipping the workforce with high level future-ready skills, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday launched a slew of initiatives to facilitate industries adopt new technologies and remain competitive as the state has a vision to become a $1 trillion economy with a manufacturing sector of $ 250 billion by 2030 .
As part of the new initiatives, the Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin inaugurated a centre of excellence (CoE) at the Tamil Nadu Advanced Manufacturing Conclave, in collaboration with Dassault Systems, and also Sipcot industrial innovation centres at Hosur and Sriperumbudur. He also laid the foundation stone for Tidel Neo park in Villupuram and Tirupur districts.
The Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, in association with Dassault Systems, has set up the Tamil Nadu Advanced Manufacturing System Centre at Tidel Park, Chennai.
As India’s first of its kind, this centre will provide a dedicated IT engineering ecosystem to support the MSME sector and students. It will also enable the growth of various industries like aerospace, defence, automotive and electric vehicles, said an official release.
The chief minister has also launched the Industry 4.0 Maturity Survey in partnership with Infosys, IIT Madras and University of Nottingham to conduct an Industry 4.0 Readiness Survey targeted towards the SMEs and large industries in the state. The survey is based on the Industry 4.0 Maturity Index developed by Infosys in collaboration with the National Academy of Science and Engineering in Germany. The survey will enable companies to evaluate, identify, and develop suitable measures to achieve their Industry 4.0 targets innovation centres.
The two industrial innovation centres are being established at Sipcot Parks at a cost of Rs 34 crore to nurture industrial innovation and accelerate adoption in partnership with Coimbatore Innovation and Business Incubator. Each facility is developed with a total built up area of 23,500 sq ft consisting of co-working spaces, meeting and event spaces, innovation labs with equipment and other resources.
TIDEL will set up neo parks in the districts of Tirupur at a cost of Rs 40 crore and Villupuram at a cost of Rs 32 crore, to allow IT companies to open development centres closer to the talent pool to drive growth in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. While the Villupuram facility is likely to be completed in May 2023, the Tirupur facility is expected to be ready by May 2023, the release said.
Stalin said that introducing advanced technologies and professional 4.0 standards in the production will pave the way for further refining the industrial environment in the state. The government is keen on preparing MSMEs to adapt the technological changes with the government providing advanced technologies to students, professionals and young entrepreneurs.
The state’s department of labour and employment in collaboration with Tata Technologies is upgrading the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) into technology centres. These ITIs are being upgraded at a cost of Rs 2877.43 crore and will pave way for the introduction of training modules on cutting-edge technologies like industrial automation, robotics, manufacturing process control, e-vehicle servicing and internet-of-things.
