February 12: National Productivity Day

The National Productivity Day is observed every year in India on February 12. Besides, February 12-18 is observed as National Productivity week throughout the country with the theme ’Industry 4.0 Leapfrog Opportunity for India’.
The main observance of day is organised by National Productivity Council (NPC) for encouraging all stakeholders in implementation of productivity tools and techniques with contemporary relevant themes. This year it is 60th Anniversary of the NPC and is being celebrated as Diamond Jubilee Year.

Industry 4.0

It is also called as fourth industrial revolution. It is emerging globally as powerful force and is being called as next industrial revolution. It is characterized by increasing digitization and interconnection of products, value chains and business models.
Industry 4.0 means convergence of real and virtual worlds. It is the next phase in bringing together conventional and modern technologies in manufacturing.  It will result in “Smart Factory”, which is characterized by versatility, ergonomic design, resource efficiency and direct integration with business partners.

Previous industrial revolutions

The first industrial revolution was triggered by water and steam power to move to mechanical manufacturing from human labour. The second industrial revolution built on electric power for mass production. The third industrial revolution used electronic and information technology to automate manufacturing. The fourth industrial revolution is the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies.

National Productivity Council (NPC)

NPC is a national level autonomous organization under Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industry to promote productivity culture in India. It was established as registered society on 12th February 1958 by Government to stimulate and promote productivity and quality consciousness across all sectors in the country.
It is a tri-partite non-profit organization (NGO) with equal representation from government, employers and workers’ organizations. It also has representatives from technical and professional institutions including members from local productivity councils and chamber of commerce on its Governing Body.
It also implements the productivity promotion schemes of Government and carry out programmes of Tokyo based Asian Productivity Organization (APO), an inter-governmental body of which India is founder member.

Month: Current Affairs - February, 2018