The Emerging Technologies Wing of ITE&C Department, Govt. of Telangana has partnered with the MeitY, Govt. of India to jointly establish the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing (NCAM) in Hyderabad. The release of the National Strategy for Additive Manufacturing by MeitY, and a continued focus on emerging technologies incl. additive manufacturing in Telangana’s ICT policies led to the natural partnership between the central and state government to jointly undertake the national initiative.
The formation of NCAM was officially announced during the launch of ICT Policy 2021-26 by the Telangana Government. The Governing Council of 11 members, comprising a balanced representation from different sections of the sector, has been formed to steer the strategic objectives of NCAM. The members of the Governing Council represent the leading organisations in Additive Manufacturing such as MIDHANI, ARCI, CSIR-CGCRI, MMU PrintCity, IIT-H, General Electric, Wipro 3D, Bharat Forge (Kalyani Group).
he vision of National Centre for Additive Manufacturing is “To create and enable a sustainable ecosystem for product innovation in India with emphasis on research, design, development, and testing through collaborative efforts between academia, industry and government using the disruptive technology of Additive Manufacturing.” The Centre shall act as the central agency to promote, foster, and drive the adoption of additive manufacturing technology in India to make the country AtmaNirbhar in the sector. The NCAM will be an independent Section-8 company that is being initiated as a 5-year project and is expected to become self-sustainable at the end of said period.
The National Center is proposed to build a comprehensive ecosystem of additive manufacturing in the country by enabling the adoption of additive manufacturing in the industry, prototyping new products and focusing on indigenization, access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, enabling research and development of standards and new product development, and promoting skill development activities to generate quality manpower. It will establish a state-of-the-art facility in Hyderabad that will offer infrastructure access like AM machines of all types—metal, polymer, and composite, amongst other things.
“Telangana was one of the first states to identify Additive Manufacturing, or 3D Printing, as one of the key emerging technologies.
“India has a huge potential for innovation across all sectors, yet it currently occupies less than 2% of the global AM industry. Additive Manufacturing is a revolution in the sector and alters the approach towards prototyping, complex geometries, small volume manufacturing, and more. Telangana, driven by its rich innovation ecosystem, hence acted as a natural partner for the central government to implement this national initiative, i.e., NCAM, to position India as a global hub in AM.”, said Shri K. T. Rama Rao, Hon’ble Minister of ITE & C, I & C and MA & UD, Government of Telangana
