Indian research centres and companies are patenting new innovations in ADP technologies in leading markets such as the EU, Japan and the US

Buoying up the confidence of proponents of digitization in India, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in its latest report called ‘Industrialising in the Digital Age’ has placed India among the nations like Australia, Canada, Italy, Singapore and Spain with Advanced Digital Production (ADP) Technologies.

“Indian research centres and companies are patenting new innovations in ADP technologies in leading markets such as the EU, Japan and the US. They are also embedding these technologies in new capital goods (smart machines) that they increasingly export abroad. Besides the manufacturing capacity, India has also a strong position in the knowledge intensive business and ICT services that control and connect these technologies on the shop floor, between supply chain partners and with markets,” René Van Berkel, Representative of the UNIDO was quoted by Sunday Guardian as saying.

The report further said ADP technologies picked up pace during the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought to the forefront the concept of digital age and almost overnight businesses, governments, educational institutions, healthcare providers and many others went online and people are now becoming accustomed to tele-education, tele-health, tele-government and tele-working.

Heaping praise on India’s digital capability, the UNIDO representative said, “laudable work is being done across India for example through the Department of Heavy Industry with its Smart Advanced Manufacturing and Rapid Transformation Hub (SAMARTH)-Udyog Bharat 4.0 which supports four centres to popularise and demonstrate practical industry 4.0 solutions.”

He said UNIDO’s assessment found that ADP policies are highly contextual. However, three areas are particularly important: developing framework conditions through industrial, technology and digital policies; fostering demand and adoption by improving awareness, readiness and availing appropriate financing; and strengthening of capabilities, particularly human resources and research capabilities.

The government has voiced strong intent to modernise manufacturing sector policy to achieve self-reliant India and move towards a world-class USD1 trillion manufacturing sector by 2024.

The SAMARTH programme is supporting demand creation as do the smart manufacturing initiatives of leading industry bodies, such as NASCOM, CII and FICCI. This can be expanded to demonstrations in the main manufacturing clusters around the country to demystify Industry 4.0 to majority of firms and indeed seed an innovation ecosystem that is increasingly driven by the manufacturing sector’s design, product and technology needs.