 "Department of Heavy Industry and Fraunhofer officials signing the MoU")
The Department of Heavy Industries (DHI), Government of India, and Fraunhofer, Germany, on October 5, 2015 signed a framework memorandum of understanding (MoU) making Fraunhofer as a technology resource partner to support and augment the Make in India programme by increasing the innovation and technology prowess of Indian industry.
The activities include creating a road-map for technological development for Indian industry, identifying and plugging technology gaps. Implementation identified projects in manufacturing, working with various stakeholders in government, industry & academia for increasing cooperation in applied research.
Research activities of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, which is the leading organisation for applied research in Europe, are conducted by 66 institutes and research units at locations throughout Germany. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft employs a staff of nearly 24,000, who work with an annual research budget totalling more than Euro 2 billion. Of this sum, around Euro 1.7 billion is generated through contract research. More than 70 percent of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s contract research revenue is derived from contracts with industry and from publicly financed research projects.
The 12th Five Year Plan calls for augmenting Indian industrial technologies development at institutes through collaborations with institutions such as Fraunhofer.
The MoU will pave the way for induction of latest technologies in capital goods sector. SME in industrial clusters will be the main beneficiaries. DHI will actively conduct technology need surveys with units and clusters and run a number of awareness, technology development and assimilation programmes with the help of Fraunhofer.
