STPI's CoE in Vizag Steel Plant to start in 3 months

Startups at CoE 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 budding entrepreneurs will also receive mentoring support from renowned industries in the automation space

Visakhapatnam: Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant on Monday signed Memorandum of Understanding on operationalising a Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Kalpataru-Industry 4.0 here.

The MoU was inked formally in the presence of RINL Chairman-cum-Managing Director Atul Bhatt and STPI incoming Director Subodh Sachan, Director CVD Ram Prasad, Additional Director Suresh B, IT Association of AP President Sreedhar Kosaraju.

In his message, Bhatt, who is brain behind behind the CoE, said that the setting up of the CoE is the need of the hour and it will become an example of industry and academia interface where everyone will come out with a solution which will benefit the country to usher in a nationwide movement in digitisation 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," he added.

After the signing of MoU, Sridhar told Bizz Buzz that RINL will officially handover the premises to STPI in the next two to three days. The Project Management Group has been constituted to manage the CoE. He said it will take three months for the CoE to be fully operational. Sridhar said late initiatives taken by the State and Central Governments will give a fillip to encourage disruptive technologies and lauded the decision of IT major Infosys to set up a huge development centre in Visakhapatnam.

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 and entrepreneurship in the State. The MoU is envisaged to provide catalytic improvements in the digitisation drive and implementation of Industry 4.0 Standards at RINL. The startups at CoE 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 budding entrepreneurs 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 Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and ITAAP will be part of the CoE by providing necessary support for nurturing the startups.

As per the decision of STPI, a premier science and technology organisation set up by the Ministry of Electronics and IT in 1991 to promote software exports, a 3D lab will be set up to promote the startup ecosystem so as to strengthen the existing ecosystem.