New Delhi [India], September 27 (ANI/PNN): NASSCOM CoE, a Digital India initiative established by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Government of Gujarat, hosted the fifth edition of Fusion 4.0 on 22nd September at IIT Gandhinagar.

The event was organised with the support of GCCI, IDMA and FGI, and brought together over 150 manufacturing industry leaders, entrepreneurs, startups and research organisations to discuss collaborative development to drive innovation and strategies for the adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions.

Industry 4.0 offers a myriad of benefits, and NASSCOM CoE has been driving its greater adoption by manufacturing enterprises, especially MSMEs. NASSCOM CoE has built the largest collaborative ecosystem for manufacturing enterprises to co-create solutions that can improve productivity, efficiency, and safety in plants by adopting AI and IoT-led digital technologies with a vision to make India the global hub of Industry 4.0.

"In an increasingly globalised world, and especially with the continuing uncertainties, manufacturing enterprises need to realise that just having high-end machinery and equipment is not good enough to claim that they are digitised and future-ready. Automation can only take them to a certain level, but to survive and thrive beyond that they need to have cyber-physical systems and adopt smart manufacturing solutions to further reduce costs and achieve greater efficiency," said Amit Saluja, Senior Director and Head, NASSCOM CoE, Gandhinagar.

The chief guest at Fusion 4.0 was Gargi Jain, Managing Director of Gujarat Informatics Limited, who spoke on "Digital led industrial growth in Gujarat".

"Gujarat, a leading industrial state in India is committed to promoting faster and inclusive growth in the technology sector. We need to pivot to technology-led industrial growth and start-ups can play a significant role. Customised and low-cost solutions made by innovative minds are going to bring a shift in the industry. The vision is to create world-class IT infrastructure, ensure the availability of high-skilled resources and encourage innovation in Emerging Technologies. The IT policy of Gujarat will further accelerate the presence of technology companies in the state." she said.

Multiple panel discussions were also organised as a part of the event, where senior leaders from the manufacturing industry discussed how to leverage a collaborative ecosystem and PoCs to accelerate innovation. There were also focused discussions on the way forward for MSMEs to build digital capabilities and kick-start their digital journey.

14 deep tech matured startups showcased their smart manufacturing solutions for improving operational efficiency and productivity in plants at the event. Some of the solutions included condition monitoring and predictive maintenance of machines, production planning and scheduling, computer vision and camera-based quality inspections, AR & VR solutions for remote collaboration, smart supply chain management solutions, smart energy management, etc.

The winners of NASSCOM CoE's Manufacturing Innovation Challenge (MIC), one of its most successful programmes that has enabled manufacturing enterprises to solve their complex manufacturing problems by working with deep-tech startups, were also felicitated on the occasion.

In the latest edition of MIC, Zydus Lifesciences, Welspun and Marico nominated their use cases for the challenge under the categories of Manufacturing Efficiency Improvement, Resource Optimisation and Quality Inspection. Algo8 AI technologies, Pixuate and Zest IoT were announced as the winners. In addition, nine finalists, who made it to the last round of the multi-screening evaluation process conducted over the last two months, were also felicitated. In all, more than 80 startups participated in the challenge.

"To help the manufacturing industry keep up with the demands of the ever-changing global and Indian landscape, NASSCOM has launched multiple initiatives that focus on helping them integrate the latest and innovative technologies. An example of such initiatives includes our Smart Manufacturing Forum, aimed at helping 100 MSMEs achieve their digital dream through skill & capacity building, mentorship, and avenues to increase their branding and market reach" added Saluja.

The 5th edition of Fusion 4.0 provided the participants with an opportunity to brainstorm on areas such as the importance of smart manufacturing in the current era, how to enable digitalisation in the organisation, empowerment of MSMEs with technology, role of startups etc.

NASSCOM CoE is also running several initiatives for this ecosystem to create awareness of the value of digital and enable companies to co-create solutions working with startups and technology companies. It's dedicated programs for the MSMEs as part of the Udyam 4.0 initiative ishelping MSMEs on where to start and how to start the digitization journey.

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