RINL holds open challenge for startups

Visakhapatnam: Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) Chairman-cum-Managing Director Atul Bhatt has launched ‘Open challenge programme 2.0’ for selecting the startups in the field of Industry 4.0 technologies.

This is the second programme in the series of OCP programmes that are being launched by Kalpataru-CoE (Centre of Entrepreneurship).

Speaking on the occasion, Bhatt said that India is the second largest steel industry in the world and it is also one of fastest growing industries with the emphasis given by the growth of infrastructure by the government. “Automation in the steel industry is the need of the hour and the scope of growth of automation and robotics is immense. The equipment developed by the startups will give return on investment by RINL very fast as they help in energy savings and will also help in running the process safely”, he added.

The project, CoE on Industry 4.0, is being taken up jointly by STPI (Software Technology Parks of India), MeitY (Ministry of Electronics & IT) and RINL and the Andhra Pradesh Government. This is expected to make India ‘Atmanirbhar’ in the field of Industry 4.0 technologies. The CoE will have an IIOT (industrial internet of things) lab, an industrial automation lab with AI & ML (artificial intelligence & machine learning) and AR & VR (augmented reality and virtual reality) lab, one more industrial automation lab with robotics and drone, a third industrial automation lab with robotics and 3D printing.

The CoE will incubate around 175 startup companies over a period of five years. Fifty startup companies will be incubated in physical mode and the remaining 125 companies in virtual mode.