To popularise the use of artificial intelligence, the internet of things, augmented reality and other digital tools to improve profitability and efficiencies of the small businesses, NASSCOM's Centre of Excellence at Gandhinagar has announced an initiative, 'Digital Manufacturing Champions' for MSMEs in Gujarat.

The NASSCOM CoE for IoT and AI will select 10 MSMEs from different sectors and guide them in adopting the latest tech tools and solutions to bring operational and management efficiency by creating an ecosystem for manufacturers, startups, and researchers.

Speaking to Businessline , Amit Saluja, Senior Director and Centre Head of NASSCOM CoE, Gandhinagar, informed that digital tech tools like AI, AR/VR, IoT could help the MSMEs overcome the challenges they face in routine operations.

Challenges involved in the supply chain management, export businesses, production quality management can be addressed through digital intervention.

"Our aim is to popularise the use of digital technology for overall efficiency for MSMEs. These 10 selected MSMEs would become the role model for others. With this initiative, we expect increased adoption of tech tools by the MSMEs in the State," said Saluja. The initiative will be carried out with the help of Gujarat's MSME Commissionerate.

"This will be a win – win strategy for the manufacturing ecosystem as it will help enterprises to realize the benefits of digital to reduce cost and reach new customers. In addition this initiative will also create business opportunities for Startups to deploy the solutions," said Saluja adding that it will be a first of its kind initiative to bring together the tech startups and MSMEs for adoption of latest digital tools for manufacturing sector.

The CoE is set up with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technologies (MeitY) and the Government of Gujarat to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies in the manufacturing segment.

The state government's MSME Commissionerate has written to district industries centres and industry associations inviting nominations from MSMEs across the state for participation. Once the nominations are finalised, the CoE team will work closely with these MSMEs to evaluate their challenges and provide recommendations on digital solutions. These MSMEs would then be connected with Deep-Tech innovative Startups for the deployment of solutions. While the advisory is not charged to MSMEs, they will need to pay for the solutions.

High-precision sectors such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, automotive, electronics and heavy engineering are priority sectors.

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