Govt’s fillip for Industry 4.0

The debate around embracing Industry 4.0 and the job losses that it could entail had settled in favour of new and more jobs that the new industry paradigm would create.

This has clarified by Atul Chaturvedi, Additional Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), on 13 Mar 2019.

This had emboldened the government to give a fillip to adopt and assimilate the best standards from the expertise available from within and outside the country and march ahead to impart competitiveness to manufacturing and services.

He was speaking at the symposium on ‘Productivity Growth with Industry 4.0 Standardisation’, organised by FICCI, jointly with the National Productivity Council (NPC) and Asian Productivity Organization (APO).

Chaturvedi said that India is going to be US$5 trillion economy in the next five years and the aim is to achieve it faster by increasing competitiveness of industry and adopting new technologies like Industry 4.0. The time now was to skill and re-skill the workforce to grasp and align their expertise with the requirements of Industry 4.0.

He pointed out that India had emerged as the most preferred destination for R&D activities of top companies of Europe and the US and much of the rest of the developed world because of the environment that protects IP and facilitates innovation and R&D.

The government, on its part, was doing its utmost to ensure that expertise from within and outside the country flows in to give manufacturing a fillip.

The government is partnering with other countries like Germany with its Mittelstand companies to tap their technologies for the benefit of India’s MSME sector, he added.

Dr. Amita Prasad, Director General of NPC, emphasised the need to adopt manufacturing standards that are commonly agreed to and not just copy the global standards unilaterally. Security and safety of data was another area that had to be carefully monitored and ensured, she added.

Hikaru Horiguchi, Director, Asian Productivity Organization, said that the organisation was focussed on raising the technological capacity of SMEs and environment friendly growth. The accent was on developing awareness and capability in adopting Industry 4.0 standards.

Dr. R. K. Bajaj, Scientist G – Deputy Director General (Standardisation), Bureau of Indian Standards, said that Industry 4.0 entailed bringing cutting edge technologies in all processes to automate and optimise the performance of industrial enterprises.

He sought the active involvement of all stakeholders in the development and updating of industrial standards.

Rajeev Singh, Co-Chairman FICCI Industry 4.0 Committee & Partner Management Consulting, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP, said that in the pursuit of Industry 4.0, standards and policy were critical.

He added that the priority for industry was to address the issue of data security and standards and protocols. fiinews.com