RINL signs MoU with STPI for Centre of Excellence on Industry 4.0 (Kalpataru)

New Delhi: 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 held at Visakhapatnam Steel plant today, the MoU was exchanged between Sri Atul Bhatt, CMD, RINL & Dr .CVD Ram Prasad, Director, STPI.

Speaking on the occasion, Sri 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”, Sri 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 start-ups 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.

Sri Sobodh Sachin, Chief Innovation officer (CIO), STPI Next, Dr.B.Suresh, Additional director, STPI, Sri Sridhar Kosaraju, State President, Information Technology Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITAAP), RINL Directors, senior officials from RINL, STPI, IIM-Vizag, Andhra University were also present at the program.

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