An MOU was signed between Iqbal Singh, general secretary, Indian Printing Packaging & Allied Machinery Manufacturers (IPAMA); and Sudhanshu Mittal, head – Gurugram Center & Director – Technical Solutions, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) Center of Excellence – IOT & AI at Noida on 20 July 2020.

NASSCOM Center of Excellence – IoT & AI is part of the Digital India Initiative by Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), in partnership with the State Governments and NASSCOM.

It is a nationwide program to develop culture of thought leadership, digital transformation and co-creation in Industry 4.0, automotive, healthcare, agriculture, energy, and other industry verticals. CoE is also engaged in facilitating technology adoption by the industry, by bringing the latest and innovations for start-ups and technology companies, and to help grow and scale their business interests. It also provides largest Innovation platform for enterprises, governments and innovators in emerging technologies of AI, ML, IoT, big data, analytics, AR/VR and robotics for digital Transformation. NASSCOM aims to be the primary catalyst for development and adoption of innovative digital solutions in different domains.

On the eve of signing of the agreement, Dayaker Reddy, president, IPAMA said, “This agreement will strengthen the Indian printing and packaging machine manufacturers in upgrading their machines. In India, the emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and advance printing and packaging are user-friendly for end-customers and ensuring widespread use in different sectors of the industry. The situation will change more in the coming years and more and more companies will come forward to make investments in automation of machines for quality enhancement, increase the production, make economical etc. We are encouraging the companies for adoption of new technologies in the printing and packaging sector.”

Sudhanshu Mittal stated that we are committed to helping Indian manufacturing sector with digital technology adoption to improve their quality, productivity, worker safety and any other area where they need help. Indian ecosystem has variety of solutions available to meet the requirements of manufacturing companies.

Through this partnership, we expect that IPAMA members will be able to leverage the expertise offered to adopt the digital technology in their operations and start their Industry 4.0 journey.

The objective of the MOU is to impart training to IPAMA Members in the emerging areas of IT-based technology and to help them with digital technology adopt in their operations. The scope of work incorporated in the agreement reads as under:

• Enable access for the members of IPAMA to the latest innovative products and solutions from the startups incubated by NASSCOM CoE and from the extended startup ecosystem.
• A deep-dive engagement program of NASSCOM CoE to fast track discovery and application of innovative solutions sourced from its network of deep-tech curated startups /innovators, system integrator and technology companies.
• To organize joint events and workshops to build awareness about the implementation of technology in printing and packaging machine manufacturing segments.
• To make members aware of existing and new use-cases as they get created to drive adoption of deep-tech within the industry ecosystem.