Innovation in manufacturing R&D is must to achieve ‘New India’:NRDC Chairman

NEW DELHI: The manufacturing sector needs to increase its investment in Research and Development (R&D), if it wants to achieve Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of ‘New India’, said Dr H Purushotham, CMD, National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.nnHe was addressing the Manufacturing Innovation Conclave 2018 (MIC2018), organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today at New Delhi.nnDr Purushotham emphasised that while in developed countries, the contribution of private sector to R&D is around 70 per cent and the rest 30 per cent comes from the government, in India, it is the government that contributes more than 70 per cent on R&D. While detailing NRDC’s forte and core expertise, Dr Purushotham highlighted that the government is focused to encourage innovations, provided the ideas are fresh and have competitive advantages.nnIn his keynote address, Dr Raghupati Singhania, CMD, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd. said, ?With technology advancement, adequate education and training is vital for continuation of innovation and growth. Through manufacturing innovation, we can accelerate our efforts in advancing expertise among the incumbent workforce, creating countless growth opportunities in the industry.? He further said, “Though, the fundamental of the manufacturing will remain constant, the time has arrived where we need to innovate the way we execute those fundamentals. We must incorporate the 4 M’s of manufacturing i.e. Material, Manpower, Machine and Method with innovative technologies.”nnSameer Gupta, Deputy Chairman, CII (Northern Region) & Chairman & MD, Jakson Group, in his welcome remarks, mentioned that innovation is the key driving force in realisation of the Make in India mission. He quoted Hon’ble Prime Minister where he had said that “If innovation does not happen, stagnation happens.” He further emphasised on CII’s role in promoting innovation and said, “CII, through its 9 centres of excellence, is continuously promoting start-ups and technology-driven enterprises with innovative ideas.”nnDr Rishi Bhatnagar, Conclave Co-Chairman & President, Aeris Communications India, in his opening remarks, said, “Developing a strong innovation culture is vital for both our nation and industry today. The Product and Process Innovation have been transforming manufacturing for decades. However, in future, the Manufacturing sector will experience more technology driven advances with breakthrough work in spheres such as nanotechnology, ?connected? assets with IoT, AI, machine learning, advanced analytics and additive manufacturing. Indian Companies with an innovation edge will have a strong competitive advantage.nnRajeev Singh, Partner, Deloitte India, in his theme address, said that India has great potential to become one of the global leaders in manufacturing sector, however, it will have to first build innovation in its DNA and for coming out with innovative ideas, investment in R&D is a must.nnDilip Sawhney, Managing Director, Rockwell Automation India, said that the ‘Connected Enterprise’ is facilitating the Digital Manufacturing Transformations in the form of higher manufacturing velocity, more agile responses, driving higher levels of productivity & competitiveness.nnSanjeev Deshpande, MD & CEO, itelligence India, mentioned that, ?Manufacturing is being transformed by Innovation in many different areas such as sophistication and automation in machine tools, efficient cutting tools, connected machines and networks, automation and efficiency in supply chains, intelligent shop floor systems and advanced execution systems, high efficient and optimized planning and scheduling systems and intelligent ERP systems etc.”nnA CII-Deloitte report titled ?Building Manufacturing, Building India? was also released during the Manufacturing Innovation Conclave 2018.nnThe conclave was attended by over 250 delegates from the manufacturing sector including industrialists, technology companies, consultants, academia and other stakeholders.