National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems

• 07 Dec 2018

The Union Cabinet has approved the launching of National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) to be implemented by Department of Science & Technology for a period of five years.

• NM-ICPS covers entire India which includes Central Ministries, State Governments, Industry and Academia.

Cyber-Physical Systems

• Cyber-physical systems integrate sensing, computation, control and networking into physical objects and infrastructure, connecting them to the Internet and to each other.
• Few Potential applications: Driverless cars that communicate securely with each other on smart roads, Sensors in the home to detect changing health conditions, improving agricultural practices and enabling scientists to address issues arising out of climate change,etc.
• Advances in cyber-physical systems will enable capability, adaptability, scalability, resiliency, safety, security and usability that will far exceed the simple embedded systems of today.

Objective

• The NM-ICPS is a comprehensive Mission which would address technology development, application development, human resource development & skill enhancement, entrepreneurship and start-up development in Cyber Physical System (CPS) and associated technologies.
• The Mission aims at establishment of 15 Technology Innovation Hubs (TIH), six Application Innovation Hubs (AIH) and four Technology Translation Research Parks (TTRP).
• These Hubs & TTRPs will connect to Academics, Industry, Central Ministries and State Government in developing solutions at reputed academic, R&D and other organizations across the country in a hub and spoke model.
• The Hubs & TTRPs have four focused areas along which the Mission implementation would proceed, namely:
  • Technology Development,
  • HRD & Skill Development,
  • Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Start-ups Ecosystem Development, and
  • International Collaborations.

Background

• CPS and its associated technologies, like Artificial Intelligence (Al), Internet of Things (loT), Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning (DP), Big Data Analytics, etc. have pervaded and is playing a transformative role in almost every field of human endeavour all most in all sectors.
• Therefore, It has become imperative for government and industries to be prepared to adopt these emerging and disruptive technologies in order to remain competitive, drive societal progress, generate employment, foster economic growth and to improve the overall quality of life and sustainability of the environment.

Impact

• CPS technologies provide a cutting edge to a Nation's scientific, engineering, and technological innovative capabilities; support other missions of the government, provide industrial and economic competitiveness and have truly became a Strategic Resource.
• The proposed Mission would act as an engine of growth that would benefit national initiatives in health, education, energy, environment, agriculture, strategic cum security, and industrial sectors, Industry 4.0, SMART Cities, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) etc.
• CPS is an integrated system of upcoming technology, which in turn is being taken up on priority basis by countries in the race for development. CPS will indeed bring a paradigm shift in entire skill sets requirement.
• The job opportunities will be enhanced through the Mission by imparting advanced skills and generating skilled manpower as per the requirement of the industry/ society. Accordingly, it is estimated that, about 40,000 jobs will be created in the short term and about 2,00,000 in long term.