Ashwini Vaishnaw, minister, railways, information and broadcasting, electronics and information technology, government of India and Chandrakant (Dada) Patil, minister, higher and technical education, government of Maharashtra were present during this occasion. Dr Vinod Mohitkar, director, technical education, MS, Dr Pramod Naik, director, the Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education; Madan Mohan Tripathi, DG, NIELIT, Abhishek Singh, additional secretary, MeitY and various officials from the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology were also present for discussion.

The scope of the work in this MoU is to establish a Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (Al), Robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, 3D Printing and Allied Technologies for capacity training and R&D centres at Government polytechnic and Government Engineering college in Maharashtra State and to seek funding from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) &other Govt. organisation through joint project proposal.

After the establishment of the Centre of Excellence, NIELIT will execute the delivery of training & learning activities for the faculty and students in collaboration with industries, will develop relevant credit course contents, will provide placement assistance for employment to the students and will maintain the Center of Excellence in good condition.

The government of Maharashtra has 40 government polytechnics in the State. The government of Maharashtra through the Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education has already established Centres of Excellence in loT at six government polytechnics and Centre of Excellence in Robotics and Automation at three government polytechnics. At the remaining government polytechnics, the Centre of Excellence will be established through the funds made available through this MoU.