Corporate Corner – July 2023

CSIR – SERC in Chennai recently celebrated the One week – one lab campaign. Showcasing the major innovations and technological breakthroughs, CSIR-SERC hosted various connect meets: society, stakeholders, students, future entrepreneurs, which culminated at the Foundation Day on 10 June.

At the stakeholder connect, Dr. U K Bhattacharya, Director (Projects), NTPC Limited highlighted on the extensive support from CSIR-SERC for plant inspection and maintenance. He referred to several pioneering works done by the lab that are not publicised enough. At the Vallur thermal power plant, CSIR-SERC using drones helped to inspect and analyse the plant. Bhattacharya highlighted an effective solution that was developed by the lab to check non-approachable structures and lauded for the path breaking solution.

“After the black day in Uttarakhand, our power plant was in jeopardy. But CSIR-SERC came up with a cost-effective and time bound solution and within few months, the plant was up and running,” said Bhattacharya thankfully.

NTPC has signed an MoU for developing customised training modules to its employees. This is to enhance the company’s knowledge base. Bhattacharya stressed on the need for co-innovation where the industry is involved right from the conception stage of research so that results are put to use effectively. He also suggested that NTPC would willingly support the lab both in infrastructure and funding to further efforts. NTPC is seeking solutions for usage of more fly ash (up to 70 per cent), design of tall structures in seismic and high wind zones, development of low carbon producing/ green building material, to repurpose large quantity of gypsum, etc. and urged CSIR-SERC to work in this direction.

 Dr V Govindaraj, Head-R&D, Larsen & Toubro stressed on the need for much advanced research. He pointed to the high-speed corridor that L&T is developing, “For high-speed trains, we need a special technology and that is only with China and Japan. Until we started this project, we were unaware and now we are bringing experts from Japan to execute it. I urge research institutions to foresee infrastructure demands and address the gaps that we may face.” He stressed on the requirement of need-based optimal solutions in restricted timelines for the industry and suggested theme-based R&D collaborations for bringing out holistic solutions. He also called upon the research organiations and regulatory bodies such as BMTPC and BIS to align more with the requirements of the industry. At the event, Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between CSIR-SERC and Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC) was signed and also an MoU between CSIR-SERC and L&T was signed.

TN Governor R N Ravi inaugurated ACMEE 2023, an international machine tools show which was organised by the Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association (AIEMA). The show saw record participation of 435, including 105 international brands.

“The main theme of the event was smart manufacturing which focussed adopting latest techniques like industry 4.0, AI and data analytics to improve processes and to save on cost and time,” said T Nalangilli, President AIEMA.

For the first time, the event had a finance lounge where several financiers including banks were present to facilitate information on loans and other support. “Of the 63 million registered MSMEs in the country, only about 5 million have access to institutional finance. The credit requirement of the MSME sector is about Rs 32.5 lakh crore,” said P S Ramesh, Convenor, ACMEE 2023.

AIEMA has around 3000 active members who are tiny, small and medium enterprises. To upgrade their operations, AIEMA will soon open a centre of excellence in collaboration with Siemens. “This centre will house facilities like 3D printers and AR/VR facilities. AIEMA members would be able to use it for a small fee,” said K Sai Sathya Kumar, Chairman, ACMEE 2023.

With the increased demand for machine tools, the industry has been on a growth mode since the pandemic. The production is estimated 40 per cent year-on-year growth in FY2021-22 while consumption recorded a 30 per cent rise in the same period.

Tamil Nadu is the growth engine for the country with a 9.1 per cent share in the national GDP. The southern states together make a one-third share and will play an important role in driving GDP growth of the country. To foster this growth, CII southern region is partnering with states towards south India@100. “The theme would be transformation through competitiveness, growth, sustainability, trust and globalisation. It will be achieved through work in 9 focus areas – people and culture, holistic sustainability and ESG, tech adoption and digital transformation, embracing energy transition, innovation and startup ecosystem, manufacturing excellence, industry 4.0, international linkages, MSMEs, membership engagement and brand building,” said Kamal Bali, Chairman of CII-SR and President and MD of Volvo Group India.

A vision document is to be prepared for Tamil Nadu for district level development and there are plans to promote the state as a hub for media and entertainment sector.

For the benefit of MSMEs, CII is planning to conduct two-day programmes in every district over the next 1-1.5 years. “We will handhold 2000 MSMEs, of which 800 are in Tamil Nadu. They will be serviced and sensitised on various elements of competitiveness and digital transformation initiatives,” added Bali.

“We were the 10th largest economy in 2014, and we expect to become the 3rd largest economy in 2027. Our growth rate at 6.5 per cent in FY24 is balanced out,” said V Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor at a meet organised by FICCI.

India’s real GDP growth rate for FY23 was 7.2 per cent and the CEA expects the final figure to be higher. “We have had two successive good years, strengthening the recovery from the pandemic-induced contraction,” he said. This growth and the recent announcement of huge capital investment in infrastructure has encouraged private investments to flow in. For the medium term, Nageswaran stressed on the importance of energy security and the need for a managed transition away from fossil fuels. Furthermore, he stressed on the need for educational reforms to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on years and to harness the potential of India’s demographic dividend.

For the first time, IIT Madras along with its associated entities, have raised a historic amount of Rs 231 crore in funding from alumni, industry and individual donors during the financial year 2022-23. This is the highest amount raised in one financial year for implementing socially-relevant projects. The fundraising has recorded a year-on-year growth of 76 per cent (Rs 131 crore in FY22). The number of donors giving over Rs 1 Crore to the institute has increased by 64 per cent from the previous year. The total funds raised has grown at a CAGR of 45 per cent over the last 10 years.

Alumni and individual donors across India and globally alone contributed nearly Rs 96 crore for the development of the Institute. The focus areas included cutting-edge research across various social impact themes, infrastructure, scholarships for students, besides establishing Chair Professorships for research in specific areas. Last year also witnessed contributions coming  through batch reunions, which could not happen earlier due to the pandemic.

The CSR segment witnessed a 56 per cent growth from the previous year with addition of 40 new partnerships in just the last year alone. The sectors that attracted top attention from donors include technology-driven initiatives in energy, environment, health and education besides collaborations for research under CSR.

IIT Madras has a professionally-managed, dedicated team at the Office of Institutional Advancement, that spearheads its fundraising activities. The team works with corporate firms, alumni and donors to raise funds for the institute. In the coming years, the Institute is looking to enhance its fundraising initiatives to undertake more projects to address societal issues.

Eaton, power management company has expanded its manufacturing base in Pondicherry. The plant which was acquired as part of the Cooper acquisition in 2012, has now been expanded to house a new block that spans 40,000 sq.ft at an investment of Rs 100 crore. Yet another block is also on the cards and will soon be up to foster continuous growth for next ten years.

“We started our product range with fuse links and then added medium voltage breakers.  Now we are adding, air circuit breakers and molded case circuit breakers. And also in the power quality side, we have the complete range of UPS, starting from 600 volts up to 1.2 megawatt.  Our basic offering is around the mega trends of energy transition and digitalisation,” said Syed Sajjadh Ali, Managing Director, Electrical Sector, Eaton, India.

Eaton has acquired 30 per cent year-on-year growth in the last 4-5 years. This has been both through gaining market share and by introducing products in various new sectors. “Our plants had reached maximum capacity and this new facility will help to push forward our growth momentum,” said Sajjadh Ali. Plans are to go in for complete localisation and they are equipping both their engineering and design teams for the same.

Eaton has an industrial division which has plants for aerospace in Bangalore and Coimbatore. Similarly, the vehicle division has 2 plants in Maharashtra. Apart from this, an engineering innovation center in Pune houses close to 2500 engineers supporting technology requirements of businesses around the world. With 35 per cent female workforce, Sajjadh Ali pointed to thewomen-focussed recruitment approach that Eaton follows. – Jayanthi Raghunathan

ChatGPT is here to stay…
-R S Sumedh

CHATGPT IS AN AI technology that allows anyone to have human-like conversations and much more with a Chatbot. Launched in November 2022, it has gained over 100 million users worldwide. India is the second largest, in terms of number of users using ChatGPT, next to the US. In a discussion on the opportunities and the challenges of ChatGPT, organised by Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Prabhu Stanislaus, IT Consultant in AI and RPA, called ChatGPT an overwhelming boon and went on to explain the methods of training AI systems. “AI will not take your jobs, the man that’s well versed with using AI will be the one to take your jobs,” he added. That said, privacy concerns, challenges to cyber security, legal implications, propagating misinformation, threat to new jobs, ambiguities, inaccuracies among others are the major concerns of ChatGPT.

V Chandrasekaran, Director and Co-Founder, Congruent Solutions was rather sceptical about ChatGPT and argued that the platform is unequal because a lot of people from the third world cannot use it and at the same time questioned the sanctity of the data with which ChatGPT was trained. Chandrasekaran compared the invention of AI to that of the atom bomb. He went on to call it an Oppenheimer moment for humanity.

Dr Harish G Ramaswamy, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE and Centre for Responsible AI, IIT Madras, highlighted the issue of unintentional misinformation that can arise with ChatGPT, emphasising that AI has the ability to confidently generate false information. He further elaborated on the notion that certain actions performed by AI, which might appear as malicious intent to humans, are actually driven by the AI’s lack of concern for concepts like good or bad intention, as its primary focus is on achieving the designated goal. In the end, millions of professionals, including marketers, programmers, educators, students, researchers and others continue to use the tool to enhance their work which solidifies the belief, AI is here to stay.