Industry 4.O meet aims at delivering continuous biz data

Tirupati: Underlining the importance of next generation of manufacturing by bringing in digitisation and making industry data smart apart from automation, a two-day conference on ‘Industry 4.O – Opportunities, Challenges and Preparedness’ has begun in Tirupati on Monday.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC), Texas A&M University and IIT Tirupati are jointly organising the conference.  

The essence of ‘Industry 4.O’ was the use of data derived insights to make better decisions and thus delivering continuous business value. At a time of witnessing several initiatives like ‘Make in India’, skill development among other things in the country, national and global expertise and their inputs are most required, said the Co-Chairman of the ‘Industry 4.O’ conference and Professor at Texas A&M University, USA Dr Satish Bukkapatnam. 

Speaking to The Hans India, he said that in various countries Industry 4.O as well as various other thrusts have become extremely prevalent. He further explained that there are four disruptive technologies.

They are smart manufacturing and new kinds of 3D printing etc., new kinds of computing communications like cloud computing, Internet of Things (IOT) systems and new kind of sensors etc., and artificial intelligence, cyber security system etc., These four have been bringing a lot of changes.

“If we can adopt these technologies then we can be basically be on trajectory with the rest of the world in creating new products delivered and new competitive environment for our industry. 

Speaking at the conference, the founder and Director of APSSDC Dr G Subba Rao has recalled the efforts of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who recognised the future needs of the industry and initiated various activities four years back itself to train people on various advanced technologies.

With several such steps, the State could have achieved 10.5 per cent growth rate and in manufacturing segment which had very limited basis four years back has been growing very significantly. He elaborated it by saying that at a time when 4.O was not much talked about in 2014, the State has started training facilities to produce large number of people, who are needed by the industry today and worked with Siemens and other companies.

The state established 40 centres operating at various places in Andhra Pradesh which produced 1 lakh young people who are well versed with new technologies. 

IIT Tirupati Director Prof KN Satyanarayana, Chairman of the ‘Industry 4.O’ conference D Ramakrishna, Vice Chairman of CII Vijay Naidu Galla, Eminent personalities in their field like SN Eisenhower, Ravi Raghavan, Dr K Lakshmi Narayana, Dr PR Kumar and others also spoke on various subjects. 

On the occasion, an MoU was signed between IIT Tirupati and Texas A&M university, USA which facilitates the two institutes to advance their collaborations, research and education. Initial focus will be on manufacturing, materials, mechanics and cyber digital systems. IIT Director Prof KN Satyanarayana and Prof Narasimha Reddy of Texas A&M University have signed the MoU.