Additive manufacturing has immense potential, says IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

New Delhi: The government is targeting to build around 50 India-specific technologies, 100 new startups, 500 products and 10 new and existing manufacturing sectors along with creating jobs for 100,000 new skilled manpower with its new policy for additive manufacturing, said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Electronics and IT, on Thursday.

“This is where the world is still moving forward and this is the time to take the lead and time to make the right moves,” Vaishnaw said while releasing the policy document.

Additive manufacturing has immense potential to revolutionize India’s manufacturing and industrial production landscape through digital processes, communication, imaging, architecture and engineering, he said.

“With the release of the strategy by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, innovation and R&D ecosystem will be encouraged in PPP mode to transform existing research knowledge base to develop additive manufacturing grade materials, 3D printer machines and printed indigenous products for vast domestic and international market in various sectors including electronics, photonics, medical device, agro and food processing etc.,” according to the policy document.

Vaishnaw also said that the government is hoping that this kind of manufacturing becomes “a major export item in the coming years and add to the growing recognition that India is a major source of high tech products.”

The government has already started a pilot for these technologies and created a new Centre of Excellence.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev
Chandrasekhar, said that this was a leap into a very important strategic area for the nation and for the digital economy.

“Additive manufacturing is at the intersection of computing, electronics, imaging and the emerging areas of artificial intelligence, patterns recognition and all the intellectual property that comes from that intersection is additive manufacturing,” Chandrasekhar said.

“Additive manufacturing plays to the strengths that India has, which is software, technology and increasingly electronics and ESDM, and artificial intelligence and other associated technologies. So digital manufacturing is very, very critical in the overall toolkit that India has,” he said.

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