– Rajesh Nath, VDMA
With its growing manufacturing activities, India offers enormous scope for accelerated growth of automation. This has prompted Messe München International (MMI, Munich Trade Fairs International Group), to organise India Automation Technology Fair (IATF) in Mumbai during February 1-3, 2013, jointly with the Automation Industry Association (AIA). This is the first-ever such event to be organised in India with international experience.
This was revealed by Mr. Rajesh Nath, Managing Director, VDMA Liaison Office India, in his thought-provoking presentation on “India – Market Opportunities for German Robotics + Automation”, at the India Day organised during Automatica 2012 in Munich.
Commenting on the Robotics + Automation scenario in Germany and in India, he said there is a clear indication of ever-growing automation activities in India with sales of robots sold in the country having gone up from 450 units in 2005 to 1,545 units in 2011.
Referring to VDMA’s role, he said the Association acted as a bridge between the German and Indian companies.
Mr. Shubashis Goldar, Acting Consul General, Consulate General of India, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said in his special address that automation is a very important area of development for India as well as other emerging markets. With the steady growth in India’s GDP, manufacturing activities are at an all-time high with huge investments being made in automation too.
Mr. Anup Wadhwa, AIA Director, gave an overview of the level of automation attained by Indian manufacturing industries, particularly the automotive sector where investment will be doubled soon. The Government move to add 15 km a day under its highway development scheme would give a further fillip to automation in the country. As a result of all this, the Indian automation output of $2 billion is expected to grow four times by 2020.
Safety and product quality are among the various benefits derived from automation. The Association has already set up an Industrial Automation Centre for learning in Baroda. This would soon be followed by a Centre of Excellence for Automation to be jointly set up with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, he added.
Mr. Tarun Marwah, Project Director, AIA, outlined the proposed plan for IATF 2013 to be organised with the support of over 100 user industry associations.
Earlier, Dr. Martin Lechner, Executive Director of Business Unit New Technologies, Messe München International, in his welcome address, said that it is in view of the growing interest of many exhibitors to enter the Indian market that MMI has decided to organise IATF 2013 in Mumbai jointly with AIA.