MeitY nod to CoE on Industry 4.0 at RINL

Visakhapatnam: THE long-awaited Centre of Excellence on Industry 4.0 at Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant will finally take off with the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) giving the administrative approval to the project.

The Software Industry Promotion Division under the ministry issued an order on administrative approval on October 14. The project will be implemented by Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) headquarters with a total budgetary outlay of Rs 20.32 crore with MeitY contributing Rs 8.32 crore, STPI Rs 1 crore and RINL sanctioning Rs 9 crore. The Government of Andhra Pradesh will give Rs 2 crore as grant-in-aid for a period of five years.

"During my stint as Chairman of Visakhapatnam Chapter of Computer Society of India, STPI regional unit and its Joint Director M.P. Dubey did the groundwork to bring the project to the city," former Director (Personnel) of RINL KC Das told Bizz Buzz on Sunday.

The CoE is envisaged to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in Industry 4.0, stimulate establishment and growth of technology-based innovators, researchers, entrepreneurs and startups in Industry 4.0 by providing necessary infrastructure, mentoring, marketing, funding and overall ecosystem interconnecting the stakeholders.

It is expected to strengthen the domestic manufacturing capability of reliable and affordable Industry 4.0 products and services thereby reducing dependence on imports and help domestic startups in becoming global companies. An official of STPI said the CoE will provide world-class Industry 4.0 products and solutions, generate employment and create awareness to attract entrepreneurship and early startups.