Despite today's drop in software and data companies, the UK's FTSE 100 share index is down just 0.07% this session as investors rotate into other sectors. Worryingly, that pattern "echoes what we saw in 2000 as the dot-com bubble started to burst", analysts at Deutsche

Domestic giant Tata Steel on Wednesday said it has inked a pact with a Bengaluru-based startup for drone-based mining solutions for effective mine management. The primary goal of this collaboration is to jointly develop and offer sustainable and end-to-end integrated solutions that will focus on efficiency, safety, and productivity of open cast mining operations. "Tata Steel has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Aarav Unmanned Systems, a Bangaluru-based startup, providing end-to-end drone solutions... for effective mine management," the company said in a statement. Tata Steel will also work jointly with AUS to provide exclusive drone-based solutions, including mine analytics and geo-technical mapping, to Tata Steel group companies across mining locations in India, it said. On the partnership, D B Sundara Ramam, Vice President, Raw Materials, Tata Steel, said: "Drone survey enabled digitalisation and other technology will assist in gathering impactful and actionable insights. We see enormous potential in redefining core mining processes such as exploration and mine planning using drone data and adequate analytics."

Here, Claudia Jarrett, US country manager at automation parts supplier EU Automation, explains how big players can learn from local businesses, using the IoT to their advantage. Harvard Business Review reports that multinational companies are finding it difficult to optimize their products, services and culture to local markets. The article says that big players are finding international growth costly and cumbersome, especially in countries where they don't have staff who are familiar with local cultures and customers or reliable local supply chain partners. Local companies understand the culture, language and compliance issues, of course, which raises the question: is there a better and more cost-effective way for large manufacturers to integrate local businesses and workers into their networks? Let's look at some steps big manufacturers can take, and why the IoT will prove essential. Three quarters of German manufacturers surveyed in Pricewaterhouse Cooper (PwC)'s Digital Factories 2020 report named regionalization as their main driver for investing in digital factories.

Tata Steel is one of the prominent names in the steel-making industry boasting over three decades of manufacturing expertise. The company is currently the world's second-most geographically-diversified steel producer, with fully integrated operations -- from mining to the manufacturing and marketing of finished products. To sustain its leadership position in a volatile market, Tata Steel needed to fortify its supply chain. Poor visibility of in-plant operations was causing delays in loading trucks. This, in turn, triggered a series of inefficiencies like traffic congestions, parking problems, and forced route diversions for inbound/outbound vehicles.

Unlike other industries such as retail, eCommerce or pharma, the role of AI and data science in the manufacturing industry is not widely known. The data generated in the manufacturing industry is hard to capture and therefore lags in leveraging AI in productivity and also moves the KPI. Ramesh Kumar, head of analytics at Tata Steel, spoke about how AI is being explored in the company and what are some of the challenges that come into picture while deploying AI. He is currently driving a large scale AI Implementation in manufacturing across Tata Steel. Kumar shared four significant challenges that intrude the AI function in the manufacturing sector.

What is'platformisation' and how does it relate to digital manufacturing? How can cloud-based design help steelmakers improve efficiency and reduce costs? How far can we go with'deep machine learning' without losing our grip on ethical responsibility and what exactly is'knowledge engineering'? These are all questions that need to be answered if steelmakers are going to gain a greater understanding of the world surrounding Industry 4.0 and its associated technologies. Augmented reality, robotics, cyber-enabled design and manufacturing – they are all subjects that need to be'top of mind' in the steel industry of the future.