ECIL develops advanced PLC

Dr Anil Kakodkar, Member Atomic Energy Commission and Y S Mayya, C&MD ECIL unveiled ECIL made MPROGICON programmable Logic controller in Hyderabad on Friday.

 

Former AEC chief unveils the PLC 

An indigenously developed Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), used for automation in a wide array of industries from dairies to nuclear plants, was unveiled by former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman, Anil Kakodkar at the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) here on Friday.

Developed by ECIL, the new PLC-MPROGICON 5000 will address the security concerns arising out of potential malware or trap doors in these vital equipments. ECIL will target these PLCs at strategic sectors like atomic energy, defence, aerospace and homeland security.

‘Self-reliance'

Addressing the gathering, Dr. Kakodkar said, “Self-reliance is immunity from any kind of vulnerability” and emphasised the need to have self-reliance in such areas. Ensuring freedom from vulnerability was an important element of strategic vision, he added.

Lauding ECIL for playing a key role in India's strategic independence, he said that PLC was one more milestone in that journey.

Expressing concern that the country's import bill of electronics items was expected to exceed the oil import bill in the coming years, he said this was a huge issue in terms of India's cyber space. “We need to be aware of this fact and do something about it.”

He called for creating some kind of protectionism in certain vital sectors, including electronics and developing ICT solutions to meet the strategically important domains.

Y.S. Mayya, Chairman and Managing Director, ECIL, said the PLC scenario in the country today was dominated by imported equipment with issues like end-use restrictions and uncertainty about long-term support. Such systems could be vulnerable to malware, trap doors, bugs and design faults.

He said the new PLC was low-powered, had features to guarantee security, obsolescence management was built-in and no end-user restrictions. ECIL was planning to come out with micro PLCs in the near future.