To cater next-generation digital manufacturing and mitigate immediate disabilities of local industries, the Government of India has launched a “National Strategy on Additive Manufacturing” policy. The policy document was released by Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology, Communications & Railways and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, in the presence of Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Departments of Industry & Commerce and Information Technology, Telangana Government, and other senior officials from MeitY. 

Speaking on this occasion, Ashwini Vaishnaw, stated “We have taken some very clearly defined goals in this strategy and I think that this is a very important characteristic of many programmes which have been defined in the last seven years. We are targeting 50 India specific technologies, 100 new start-ups, 500 products, 10 existing & new manufacturing sectors & 1 Lakh new skilled manpower. With this kind of goal-making approach & collaboration among Centre, State, Industry & other stakeholders, I am sure that we will achieve a lot of success through this policy. My colleague, Mr Chandrashekar is also holding the portfolio for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship & is doing a fantastic work there, which brings synergies between the two ministries.”

Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated, “I am pleased that after several public consultations, consultation with stakeholders & internal discussions within the ministry, we are going to launch this very important document, which I believe is a leap into a very strategic area for the nation & indeed the economy, which is additive manufacturing. Manufacturing sector is an important part of our Prime Minister’s vision for $1 trillion digital economy. Additive manufacturing is next generation of digital manufacturing allows the intersection of computing electronics, imaging & the emerging areas of artificial intelligence, pattern recognition & will create intellectual property & export opportunities. Next wave of start-ups will emerge in this area.”

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has immense potential to revolutionise India’s manufacturing and industrial production landscape through digital processes, communication, imaging, architecture and engineering. With the release of the strategy by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, innovation and R&D ecosystem will be encouraged in PPP mode to transform existing research knowledgebase to develop Additive manufacturing grade materials, 3D printer machines and printed indigenous products for vast domestic and international market in various sectors including electronics, photonics, medical device, agro and food processing etc.

The national strategy would postulate the tenets of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ that advocate self-reliance through technological transformation of the production paradigm, which will be realised through a dedicated National Centre with the participation of all stakeholders. This centre will act as an aggregator of knowledge and resources to accelerate technology adoption and advancement. The sector specific centres will also be created to infuse indigenous AM technology to offer Indian manufactures an edge over global peers.

The strategy aspires to achieve 5% of global AM market share and thereto add nearly $ 1 billion to the GDP by 2025. This will create eco-system for creation of nearly 100 new start-ups, 10 AM sectors and 1 lakh new skilled manpower, besides, development of 500 AM products and 50 Indian AM technologies on material, machine, process and software. In addition, awareness for adoption of AM products to facilitate this growth will be created.