CMTI conducted Stakeholder Meet on Advanced Manufacturing Strategy in Karnataka

On 23 February, Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI) held a top level stakeholder consultation to discuss India's draft advanced manufacturing strategy. The meeting was co-organized by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and the Ministry of Heavy Industries.

The consultation brought together about 220 stakeholders from all segments of the ecosystem, including the Central government departments, industry leaders of the private sector, MSMEs, startups, academic institutions, and R&D organizations.

The true objective was to formulate a manufacturing roadmap for India that would harness innovation, technology adoption, and collaborative research to enhance competitiveness.

Currently, the areas of focus for the manufacturing competitiveness enhancement plan are the development of CNC machine tools and indigenous controllers, the manufacturing of advanced precision machinery, robotics integration, testing and metrology infrastructure, and advanced additive manufacturing technologies. The participants were discussing how high, end machine tools import dependency could be lowered by domestic design and production capabilities being improved concurrently.

Officials pointed out the essential need to ensure that research and development activities are in line with the requirements of the industry. The discussions also considered collaborative research and development projects between public research institutions and private sector players, with very detailed discussion on budgets, schedules for implementation, and risk management. 

Stakeholders emphasized that a one off injection of funding cannot be the solution and that a full package of supportive policies needs to be put in place to speed up the innovation cycles. The consultation is one of the components of the broader initiative to make India a global manufacturing hub by using the latest technologies and upgrading the industrial infrastructure. 

The specialists pointed out that without solid CNC systems, automation, and additive manufacturing the defence sector, automotive thereby aeronautics and heavy industries cannot be modernized. The results of the discussion should go towards a well defined national advanced manufacturing roadmap that will facilitate the increase in productivity of the industry, support technological self reliance, and enhance India's positioning in the global supply chain integration for the high precision manufacturing spheres.