Chennai

IIT Madras has partnered with FaMe TN (Bureau for Facilitating MSMEs) to accelerate digital transformation, AI adoption and capability building across the state's industrial ecosystem.

The collaboration will be led by IIT Madras' Centre of Tech Excellence, with support from a CSR grant by Walmart Global Tech.

The initiative aims to drive the digital empowerment of MSMEs operating in manufacturing, retail and allied sectors, according to a release issued on Wednesday.

The solutions developed through the collaboration will be low-cost and user-friendly, making them suitable for MSMEs that require accessible and scalable technologies without significant capital investment.

An MoU for the collaboration was signed between FaMe TN and IIT Madras.

The collaboration envisages the development of a state-level MSME Digital Readiness and Adoption Index to assess the digital maturity of MSMEs across Tamil Nadu as one of its key outcomes.

The initiative will support AI, digital transformation and Industry 4.0 adoption through digital readiness assessments, capacity-building programmes, technology demonstrations and implementation support.

It will facilitate the development, technology transfer and large-scale deployment of indigenous digital solutions, while establishing a collaborative government-academia-industry innovation ecosystem anchored at the Centre of Tech Excellence at IIT Madras.

Elaborating on the collaboration, Prof Raghunathan Rengaswamy of IIT Madras said, "This partnership aims to integrate AI-enabled workflows, shop-floor digitisation and Industry 4.0 tools into the day-to-day operations of MSMEs in Tamil Nadu."

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"By focusing on practical, field-deployable technologies and on-ground interventions, the initiative seeks to enhance productivity, improve product quality and strengthen the global competitiveness of small and medium manufacturing units across sectors such as automotive, engineering and fabrication," he added.