The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has established a Centre for Tech Excellence to cater to the micro, small and medium enterprises with support from Walmart.
The centre aims to train MSME units in the use of artificial intelligence and internet of things technology quickly and effectively to develop their business. An agreement to this effect was signed on Wednesday.
Institute Director V. Kamakoti said the MSMEs, which determine 30% of the Indian industry sector, required guidance to deploy technology. In the coming years, Indian companies would have to adhere strictly to Sustainable Development Goals for which the MSMEs must be equipped, he said.
The centre would use technology to help MSMEs with overall product evaluation, which in turn would improve economic growth, he said. “This is a kind of a venture that can be scaled to a 1.5 billion population whose needs are varied. There are varieties of MSME in fields such as agriculture and medicine (as well). We are introducing a common portal,” he said.
The Institute had started focusing on MSMEs since last year. It launched a centre with the financial company Kotak and many MSMEs had benefited. The institute’s study would be released as a report in a couple of months, Mr. Kamakoti added. “Similarly, we plan to empower and encourage MSMEs, through the tech centre,” he explained.
The centre would also offer solutions to many research problems as faculty from various disciplines and departments would be involved.
Walmart’s chief technical officer and chief development officer Suresh Kumar, who is also an alumnus of the institute, said the company had been engaging with the institute since 2022. “First, we focused on students and research. This is the second collaboration between Walmart and IIT Madras,” he said.
In the next three years the Institute will take up 15-20 MSMEs who will be helped to leverage AI and IoT technology and form a case study for the institute.
