RINL works towards promotion of innovation and startup initiatives
RINL signs MOU with STPI
for Centre of Excellence Kalpataru on Industry 4.0
An
MoU was signed between STPI, STPINEXT and RINL-VSP (Visakhapatnam Steel Plant)
for Industry 4.0 CoE (Kalpataru) for promotion of Innovation & Startup
activities for RINL and other industries in and around Visakhapatnam. At a
function was held at Visakhapatnam Steel plant today, the MoU was exchanged
between Atul Bhatt, CMD, RINL & Dr CVD Ram Prasad, Director, STPI.
Speaking on the occasion, Atul Bhatt, CMD, RINL who
is the chief Mentor behind the CoE, said that the setting up of the Centre of
Excellence (CoE) is the need of the hour and it will become an example of
industry & academia interface where everyone will come out with a solution
which will benefit the country and will usher in a Nationwide movement in
digitalisation in steel industry.
“India is now becoming the epicentre of steel
making in the World and India stands as the second largest steel producer in
the world and I hope that Vizag will become the hub of providing solutions in
steel making to the country”, Atul Bhatt added.
The centre for Excellence will go a long way in
supporting the “Atma Nirbhar Bharat” of Govt. of India and in incubating
start-ups from ideation to product development in Industry 4.0
The CoE is coming up over a built up space of
approximately 6000 square feet at Ukkunagaram. The CoE has been named
‘Kalpataru’. It will house an Industrial Robotics lab, an Industrial Drones lab
and an Industrial IOT (Internet of Things) lab. The Centre will also be
provided with high speed internet and server setup using cloud computing to
have capabilities for working with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine
Learning (ML).
The primary objective of the MOU is to forge strong
and meaningful alliance between STPI, STPINEXT & RINL to support the
Startup Ecosystem in Visakhapatnam. This is being established with funding
support from Ministry of Electronics & IT, Government of India (MeitY),
RINL and Government of Andhra Pradesh.
The COE on Industry 4.0 will benefit RINL by the
way of improvement in Production, Productivity and safety. The solutions
offered by the CoE will also aid in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of
plant and machinery, help in monitoring the health of structures and aid to
detect and reduce industrial pollution.
The MoU envisages a strong co-operation in
mentoring, access to infrastructure and facilities, networking and funding.
STPI & STPINEXT and RINL will enable budding start-up companies to make
world class products in the area of Industry 4.0. It is planned to incubate
around 50 start-ups in physical mode and 125 start-ups in Virtual mode over a
period of 5 years. The present MOU is being signed for a period of 3 years.
The startups will be aptly supported by the premier
institutes like IIM Visakhapatnam and Andhra University in the form of research
inputs in Management and Technology. The Start-ups will also receive mentoring
support from renowned industries in the automation space like SMS group,
Schneider Electric, ABB, EOS, and Siemens. The premier associations like CII
(Confederation of Indian Industry) and ITAAP (IT Association of Andhra Pradesh)
are also part of the CoE. They will provide necessary support for nurturing the
start-ups.
The CoE (Kalpataru) is one of its kind to work in
the space of Industry 4.0, with the required ecosystem for promoting Startups
and creating a holistic eco-system for encouraging R&D, Innovation, Product
development, Entrepreneurship in the State. This MOU is envisaged to provide
catalytic improvements in the Digitalization drive and implementation of
Industry 4.0 Standards at RINL.