ICT System for 14.0 Adoption: Comparative Study to Assess the Readiness in Manufacturing MSMEs

Abstract

One of India’s fastest-growing industries is the manufacturing sector centered on exports. Additionally, it has a greater impact on the economic development of India. Technology in the export-oriented manufacturing sector makes a significant contribution to the rise in productivity, which also boosts profits. The study’s major goal is to learn more about the adoption of the 14.0 ICT system by manufacturing enterprises with reference to MSMEs and to evaluate its efficacy. In order to gather information for this goal, a survey approach was used, with the dimensions of ICT infrastructure, ICT hardware, software, and information systems, as well as people and human resource factors, as the instruments. Multiple regression and descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the data on a sample size of 7 businesses from the Pondicherry region. The conclusion is that firms have a significant gap in their ICT preparedness in terms of ICT infrastructure, ICT hardware, software, and information systems, and this must be treated seriously by the businesses if technology advancement is to continue in the future.