The Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises plans to open centres of excellence for technology development in capital goods at four Indian Institutes of Technology, and at the Central Manufacturing Technology Institute, Bangalore.
Disclosing this in his convocation address at Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Maha Vidyalaya here on Sunday, Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Pon. Radhakrishnan said the centres to be set up at the IIT-Madras, Delhi, Bombay and Kharagpur and at the CMTI would have design, manufacture, assembly and testing infrastructure and laboratories, to be manned by system development engineers and scientists. These centres might help to develop new technology and sub- or total systems and even demonstrate a limited series of production themes to bring the products to the level of commercial worthiness.
Claiming that the ‘make in India’ campaign was set to open windows of opportunities to young graduates, he called upon them to rise to the occasion and make the country a nerve centre of industrial activity.
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He said the real pride lay in innovation, and not in imitation or transplantation of technology. The country, which performed reasonably well in the services industry and became a destination for outsourcing, should concentrate on manufacturing, as there was an overriding priority to undertake technology development in different fields.
Medals and degree certificates were awarded to the students at the convocation, held in the presence of Kanchi Kamkoti Peetathipathi Jayendra Saraswathi and chaired by Chancellor S. Jayarama Reddy.