Governor inaugurates technology business incubator at Sastra

(Rep Image)

Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit inaugurated Foundation for Innovation & Research at Sastra: Technology Business Incubator (FIRST) for 3D Printing and Internet of Things (IoT) at Sastra University in Thanjavur on Wednesday. He also spoke about the importance and potential of technologies like 3D printing and IoT.
FIRST has been established by the university at a cost of Rs 15 crore for research and innovation with support from the department of science and technology, government of India. It has been setup with an aim to nurture next generation entrepreneurs through research, training, consultancy and education.
Speaking during the event, Purohit stated that science and technology serve as the beacon lights for economic prosperity. Sharing his thoughts on 3D Printing technology, he said, “In recent years, 3D printing has gone from a cutting-edge novelty to a growing and popular industry for new startups.”
The governor added that the 3D printing market, which is expected to be worth $10.8 billion by 2021, included a robust Indian 3D printer market of $79 million by 2021. “Over the next six years, medical, aerospace and military applications are exhibiting promising growth in India’s 3D printing market, owing to increased spending towards R&D of aerospace and military related equipment,” he said.


On IoT, citing International Data Corporation’s (IDC) report, Purohit mentioned that the worldwide spending on IoT stood at $674 billion in 2017 and the spending was expected to reach $772.5 billion in 2018. “In India, the IoT market is going to touch $15 billion by 2020, according to NASSCOM. Fueled by a $1 billion investment from the Indian government every year for building 100 smart cities, the trade association also predicts that by 2020, India will account for nearly 5% of the global IoT market.”
Meanwhile, CEO of FIRST, V Sridharan spoke about how the labs and centres setup at Sastra would be functioning. He said that 3D printing will be having two major centres: Innovation and Training Centre and Rapid Prototyping Centre. “The innovation and training centre is like an entry level for people to get exposed and carry out research and experimentation processes, while at rapid prototyping centre, we have more advanced and expensive machines,” he told TOI.
Even for IoT, there will betwo large labs, he said. The labs are setup with wide range of sensors, modules, kits and signal generator, web nodes and transceivers devices, he added. “This setup has facilities for agriculture IoT, smart energy, smart grid, home automation, security, surveillance, health care, mobile IoT and so on,” Sridharan said.
Apart from the inauguration of FIRST, the governor awarded scholarships worth Rs 96.42 lakh to achieving students from academic year 2016/17 under Student Merit Scholarship.

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