AI adoption can make India's manufacturing take the next big leap, say industry leaders

New Delhi [India], December 15 : Experts at the CII Smart Manufacturing Summit said India's industries are now entering a crucial phase where artificial intelligence (AI) must guide the country's next big leap in manufacturing. Speaking at the summit on Monday, industry leaders explained why AI-driven transformation can no longer wait, and India needs to strengthen its place in global manufacturing and move up the value chain.

Speaking toat the sidelines of the event, C V Raman, Executive Committee Member and former CTO of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, said the focus must stay on new technologies and on preparing workers for the changes ahead. He said the conference showed how important it is to "re-skill our engineers and the ITIs and also upskill them for the new age technologies." He added that government programmes, highlighted at the summit, are aimed at helping industry build this shift through clusters and shared efforts.

Raman said India is still low in the global value chain and must now work on areas like sustainability, net-zero technologies and scaling new solutions. He said the challenge is large, but industry and government are already working together and need to shape policies that support skill development, research and a strong manufacturing ecosystem.

Tejpreet Singh Chopra, CEO of Bharat Light & Power Ltd, toldthat the size of India's manufacturing base makes the transition even more urgent. He said India has "60 million MSMEs... they employ about 230 million people," and improving their manufacturing systems is key to making the country globally competitive. He explained that India must build people skills, IT systems and OT infrastructure together to make a "dramatic shift" in how factories operate.

Chopra said that the government has started multiple missions to support this change, including skilling and training programmes. But he added that India needs a clear and fast AI plan because "there's an AI arms war going on out there" and MSMEs must not be left behind. He said AI has to be used across industries like manufacturing, energy, aviation and oil and gas, and the need is immediate.

He suggested that policy support should help bring high-end AI tools to millions of small units, possibly through incentives or subsidies. He also said that success stories should be shared widely so companies can learn from each other and understand what works at scale.

Chopra pointed to several challenges that India must solve, starting with the difficulty of connecting machines that do not share data. He said linking the physical world to the digital world is the first big step, followed by using AI and generative AI to turn data into useful intelligence.

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