ET Make in India SME Regional Summits: How Canon is capturing Nagpur’s industrial surge

Canon's timing couldn't be better. As Nagpur emerges as a hub for defence manufacturing, pharmaceutical production, and India's ambitious lithium battery ventures, the Japanese imaging giant is positioning itself far beyond traditional printing solutions, adding MRI machines, CT scanners, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to its Indian portfolio.

Speaking at the ET Make in India SME Regional Summit - Nagpur, Sujay Sharma, Sales Manager for Canon India's BIS Channel, outlined an aggressive expansion strategy that transforms the company from a printer supplier into a comprehensive industrial solutions provider for India's MSMEs. Canon was the tech enabler for the summit, and IDBI was the banking and lending partner.

The Nagpur opportunity

Canon's diversification reflects the changing needs of India's industrial landscape. The company recently entered the medical equipment space with MRI machines, CT scanners, and digital X-ray systems that will be available across India. It’s also stepping into semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which aligns with India's semiconductor production push via companies such as Tata and Softcon.

For Nagpur in particular, Canon's expansion timing aligns with the city's transformation into a multi-sectoral industrial hub. Defence manufacturing requires precision imaging and documentation systems. Pharmaceutical production needs both printing solutions and medical equipment. The emerging lithium battery sector will require advanced manufacturing equipment, all areas where Canon is now positioned to serve.

The company's flexible rental options (36-month terms through business partners) also address the capital constraints that often limit MSME equipment upgrades.

The MSME cost efficiency promise
At the ET SME Summit, Sharma identified a persistent issue plaguing MSME operations: hidden costs from poorly defined service agreements, non-genuine consumables, and mismatched hardware. Canon's response includes comprehensive service level agreements with trained engineers, guaranteed genuine consumables through authorised dealers, and unified solutions that eliminate the complexity of managing multiple printer types across departments.

This single-window approach addresses the operational complexity that can overwhelm smaller businesses lacking dedicated IT departments.

Canon is helping enterprises grappling with operational costs as well, Sharma outlined in his presentation. The company's Uniflow Print Manager system pledges up to 30% savings in printing through detailed tracking of usage patterns, monitoring who prints, how many pages, on which devices, and in what formats. Meanwhile, the ‘On-Demand Fixing’ technology reduces energy usage by 30%, while the FORZL Print system allows on-device paper size adjustments, cutting paper wastage. Considering every rupee counts for MSMEs, such efficiency gains could provide significant competitive advantages.

Digitisation as a competitive advantage
Canon's document management solutions target a fundamental challenge facing growing MSMEs: the transition from paper-based to digital operations. It offers end-to-end solutions from document creation and PDF conversion to archiving and retrieval systems. For instance, its scanner range covers eight to 222 images per minute, with specialised accessories for bound books and bundled documents— addressing the reality that many Indian businesses still deal with substantial physical documentation that needs digitisation.

Service infrastructure
Canon's India operations reveal the scale required to serve a diverse industrial base effectively. The company maintains 23 direct service operations, over 80,000 indirect service locations, and support from 180 service partners across 632 cities. This translates to 349 camera collection centres and 183 copier and scanner service centres nationwide.

The promise of 95% uptime through smart services and remote diagnostics addresses a critical MSME pain point: equipment downtime that can cripple small operations lacking backup systems.

Strategic implications
Canon's evolution from an imaging company to a comprehensive industrial solutions provider reflects broader changes in how global technology companies are approaching the Indian market. Rather than simply selling products, it’s building integrated ecosystems that address multiple operational challenges facing growing businesses.

Sharma’s presentation at the ET Make in India SME Regional Summit - Nagpur revealed both an opportunity and a strategic choice: work with specialised vendors for different needs, or consolidate operations with integrated solution providers promising cost savings, simplified maintenance, and comprehensive support.

As India's manufacturing sector continues its rapid evolution, Canon's bet on diversification and comprehensive service delivery may prove prescient, particularly in emerging industrial centres where enterprises need reliable, efficient operations to compete in global markets.

The ET Make in India SME Regional Summits, ET MSME Day, and ET MSME Awards are flagship initiatives to celebrate the versatility and success of India’s MSME sector. If you lead or are part of a micro, small, or medium enterprise, register for the ET MSME Awards 2025 before August 31, 2025.