Tamil Nadu’s Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan emphasised that it is essential for India to tap into its domestic market, given the current geopolitical concerns globally.

“Protectionist measures, such as tariffs, trade regulations and shifting supply chains, are making it increasingly harder for businesses to enter international markets,” he said. “In this climate, it’s critical for India to leverage its sheer scale and the strength of its massive domestic consumption market,” he added.

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The Minister was speaking at the “ZeroToOne: GenAI Product Day” at the IIT-Madras Research Park in Chennai. He added that the Tamil Nadu government’s aim is to create a robust innovation ecosystem where even young MSMEs have the tools to adopt AI and digital technologies to design, manufacture and deliver impactful products.

During the event, the Minister unveiled MakeGPT, a platform that helps create sophisticated Internet of Things systems using natural prompts. The platform, built by IIT-Madras Research Park-based KochadAI Technologies, allows users to describe their ideas in plain language and automatically generate complete working IoT solutions.

“Imagine telling an AI ‘Create a soil moisture monitoring system that sends alerts to my phone when plants need water’ and receiving a complete prototype with component lists, firmware code and assembly instructions,” said Naveena Swamy, Founder, KochadAI Technology Solutions.

“That’s the reality MakeGPT delivers today. We’re democratising hardware innovation for everyone,” she added.

 

The event saw participants discuss the unique use cases of generative AI in product development and hardware innovation. It also involved live showcases of many GenAI themed student projects.

 

Media: Business Line