National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT)  Calicut  opened a Skilled Manpower Advanced Research and Training Lab (SMART Lab) that was set up with a Central aid of ₹4 crore under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary, MeitY, inaugurated the virtual prototyping facility established under the Centre’s Chips to Start-Up programme  on 3 March 2023. 

Madan Mohan Tripathi, Director-General, NIELIT, said the institute had already taken up the mandate of training citizens with skills that would meet industrial requirements and address gaps. “We are also in the process of bringing out a unique pedagogy for the country aimed at delivering highly skilled professionals in a variety of high-tech domains,” he added. 

Sunita Verma, group coordinator of Research and Development, MeitY, explained how the new lab would aid start-ups, industries, and academia in accessing the otherwise rare tool suites and hardware for their experiments. District Collector N. Tej Lohit Reddy, Malappuram District Development Commissioner Rajeev Kumar Choudhary, and NIELIT Director S. Pratap Kumar were present.