The Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC), Sedaxis Advanced Materials Pvt. Ltd., and VIT Chennai signed a landmark agreement on Tuesday, 22nd November, to collaborate extensively to accelerate AM technology adoption and awareness among the thousands of MSMEs in Tamil Nadu. This announcement comes just a few months following the establishment of the VIT-SEDAXIS CoE for Additive Manufacturing in July of this year.
This agreement aligns with India’s National Strategy for Additive Manufacturing, which calls for increased collaboration among government institutions, academia, and industry to promote AM at the grassroots level.
Accelerate AM Technology Adoption in MSMEs
TIIC is Tamil Nadu’s first state level development financial institution primarily working for MSMEs to help catalyze industrial development by providing financial assistance for setting up of new industrial units and/or modernization of existing industrial infrastructure.
The Chairman and Managing Director of TIIC, Mr. Hans Raj Verma, IAS was the Chief Guest at the signing ceremony held at the VIT, Chennai campus. The event was also attended by representatives from VIT, Chennai led by Chancellor Shri. G Viswanathan and from Sedaxis Advanced Materials led by their Business Head, Mr. Vishwanath Godavarty.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Verma remarked that MSMEs form the backbone of TamilNadu’s economy and they must explore and adopt advanced manufacturing technologies like Additive Manufacturing to become more Industry 4.0 ready. This, he said, is a key step to help fulfil the Honorable CM’s vision to make TamilNadu as US$ 1 trillion economy by the year 2030. Mr. Verma added that this was a historic occasion as there is no precedence to such a tri-party agreement between the Government, a leading Academic Institution and an Industry Thought Leader in AM.
Mr. Godavarty, Business Head at Sedaxis, expressed his appreciation to TIIC for joining the VIT-SEDAXIS partnership to promote Industry 4.0 and Additive Manufacturing among MSMEs in Tamil Nadu. This, he said, was exactly in line with Sedaxis’ vision of democratising 3D printing across India’s underserved SME sector. Mr. Godavarty was delighted at the opportunity to support the AM adoption journey of MSMEs in Tamil Nadu via:
- Trainings to be conducted in collaboration with VIT
- Value-added services within the VIT-SEDAXIS CoE for AM, and,
- Infrastructure upgrade opportunities with TIIC support.
Dr. G Viswanathan, Chancellor of VIT, spoke about the importance of such a collaboration in promoting Industry 4.0 initiatives among SMEs in Tamil Nadu. He was also pleased to receive TIIC’s support for V-NEST, VIT’s own start-up incubation services centre, which will help promote the start-up culture among VIT students and faculty, as well as external entrepreneurs.
The event concluded with the signing of the tri-party MoU, followed by Dr. G Viswanathan’s felicitation of the dignitaries present and a rendition of India’s National Anthem.
