CII exhorts global educationists to partner with India

​MOCI calls for removal of barriers in education

Ireland offers to deepen collaborations

Benefits of collaboration in education lead to win-win for both sides and it is essential to build deeper collaborations through exchange programmes. This was stated by Mr Richard Burton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Ireland and by Mr J S Deepak, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, at a conference on education in New Delhi on Saturday. The conference, which had the theme “Education & Skills – Connecting India to the World” was organized on the occasion of the first-ever Global Exhibition on Services (GES).  A joint initiative of the Ministry of Commerce, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC), GES was inaugurated by Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, on April 24.

Speaking at the conference, Mr Vijay Thadani, Chairman, CII National Committee on Higher Education and Co-Founder, NIIT Limited, said India was one of the youngest nations in the world and it will remain so for a while. Nearly 17 per cent Indians worked across the world. The demographic dividend required a huge effort in education and skills. CII, he said, was one of the bridges through which several reforms were taking place in the country and he offered global players present at the conference to partner with it to take forward their agenda.

Mr Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Ireland addressing at the inaugural session of the CII Conference on Education – “Education & Skills – Connecting India to the World” held on 25 April, 2015 at New Delhi.

Mr Robin Murt, Chief Executive Officer, Technical and Further Education (TAFE) – South Australia, said there was an alignment between the objectives of TAFE and what the need was in India – providing stepping stones to students for a better future and delivering lifelong learning. He lauded the government’s determination to make National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) certificate mandatory for those applying for government jobs.

Earlier, Mr Burton said education had been at the heart of Ireland’s journey from an agrarian economy to one which is led by technology. Investments in higher education and research have made Ireland one of the fastest growing economies of the European Union today. Research funding is competitive and 30 per cent comes from industry. It also has entrepreneurship as a big focus. The government funds commercialization of research, it supports start-ups and builds the capability of entrepreneurs. For India too, education would be the key to making the transition from being a developing economy to one which is developed. He said technology was today playing a big role in every field but it was not doing what it needed to in education.

Mr Deepak said education was the most crucial sector among India’s services. The drivers for this sector were high skills of its people, its geography, its cost competitiveness and its high number of English speaking trainers, he said. These, coupled with growth of technology which had made distance education more effective, had the capability to make India an important global destination. He rued the fact that there were various kinds of barriers in global mobility of professionals, including from the field of education, and there was need to remove those barriers.

One of the focus areas of GES is education since India has one of the largest education systems in the world. With more than 50 per cent of its population below the age of 25 and 65 per cent below the age of 35, India has demographics on its side. There are roughly 250 million children in Indian schools. In higher education the gross enrolment ratio (GER) as per MHRD’s latest All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) is 21.1 per cent (calculated for 18-23 years of age).

On the skills side, the numbers at present are alarming. Out of a workforce of roughly 500 million, only 6 per cent has any kind of formal skills. The government target is to provide skills to 500 million people by 2022.

​​India has the pre-requisites for building its advantage in services but regulations act as a barrier: Arun Jaitley

Services are more easily India’s territory and we cannot afford to lose our advantage in the services arena. We have the necessary prerequisites for building our advantage in services – a large and growing population, a reservoir of rich and varied human resources and a population which demands quality services. While in other major sectors – agriculture, manufacturing and mining – there are a number of regulatory and other challenges and which come in the way of unleashing our latent potential which is not the case with services where government intervention is minimal. This was stated by Mr Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Finance, during the Valedictory session of the Global Exhibition on Services held here today.

Elaborating further on the subject, Mr Jaitley maintained that the services sector provided the opportunity to unleash its own energy and foster growth as it is not entirely dependent on availability of quality infrastructure or natural resources. Moreover, it is an area where chartering new territories would also depend on the creativity and imagination of the human mind. Citing examples of the largest retailer, which has operations worldwide but does not own a single retail store or the largest taxi service which does not own a single vehicle, he said that numerous changes have been happening in the last few years which have made the the brick and mortar model less relevant. Similarly, services are expanding in new unchartered areas and new avenues are being opened up in cyberspace eg in education, banking, etc.

According to Mr Jaitley, the major factor coming in the way of realising our full potential in services is our narrow mindset which envisions a conspiracy in every step we make towards progress. Hence, the response is to either delay or stop any progressive move. No wonder, we fall behind in the world’s competitive battles. This mindset has to be put behind and our aim should be to be a creator rather than the recipient of services. It needs to be realised that sectoral limits on FDI no longer make sense in an era when prohibitions can be breached by technology.

Mr Jaitley said that the new script that is being written and adopted by countries is the primacy of consumer choice in determining market outcomes. While China adopted this precept for Manufacturing by producing quality goods at world beating prices, India has adopted the same for services. India has the potential to provide quality services at a fraction of the cost eg hospitals, tourism, smart cities. He said that we have the best hospitals which provide low cost quality services. However, we have taken long to liberalise our insurance sector. Similarly, our potential in tourism is constrained by our high cost hotels which are among the costliest in the world due to high taxes which are a deterrent.

We need to identify focus areas where we have the potential in the services sector and gear our policies to achieve our goal of delivering world class services.

In his opening remarks Mr Rajiv Kher, Commerce Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said that the exhibition was the first of its kind on services and has been enthusiastically received by the stakeholders. The three day exhibition has a large number of participants both from India and abroad, with 350 exhibitors from 60 countries and 18 Indian states and around 3000 B2B meetings, informed Mr Kher.

To further promote the sector Mr Kher stressed on the need for a much more intensive approach to tap the latent potential of several other sectors such as tourism, healthcare, education, legal services etc by pushing for internal reforms in the specific sectors.

Speaking at the Valedictory session of the Global Exhibition on Services (GES), Hon’ble Minister of State for Commerce & Industry Ms Nirmala Sitharaman said that the exhibition will be an annual global event to be held in February of every year. It would be a platform for showcasing and sharing experiences in the services sector. She said that the Prime Minister had not only inaugurated the Exhibition but also given a lot of ideas for making Indian services more competitive. She hoped that the services sector would be able to double its income in the next four years.

Giving his vote of thanks, Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said that with changing paradigm, demography and behavioral patterns along with the enabling framework being provided by the present government, India will surely march towards acquiring a reasonable share in global services exports.

While welcoming the guests earlier at the session Mr Sumit Mazumder, President CII, praised the initiatives taken by the organizers and the delegates for articulating on the various issues and challenges before different sectors and presenting new ideas for building brand India.

​Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman gives away National IP Awards on the eve of World Intellectual Property Day

IIT Bombay, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore Pvt. Ltd., Aditya Birla Retail Limited, Larsen & Toubro (Electrical & Automation), Textiles Committee were among winners of National Intellectual Property Awards for 2015. IIT Bombay won the awards for the top India Academic Institution for Patents, best commercialization of patent(s) based in India and the WIPO Users trophy. The award for top R&D institution/organization for patents was won by DRDO. Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore Pvt. Ltd. was felicitated with the award for Top Indian Public Limited Company/Private Limited Company/Indian subsidiary of a transational corporation for Patents as well as the WIPO IP Enterprise Trophy. The awards for top organization in Trademarks and Designs were won by Aditya Birla Retail Ltd. and Larsen & Toubro (Electrical & Automation) respectively. Mumbai based Textiles Committee, Ministry of Textiles,  won the award for best facilitation of registration of Geographical Indication (GI) and promotion of registered GI in the country.

                                                        Photo courtsey: Neeraj Rajput @neeraj_rajput

In the individual category the Patent award was won by Mr. Valagam Rajagopal Raghunathan who is an engineer from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore having expertise in the field of wind energy. He was also honoured with the WIPO medal for inventors. Prof. Binay Kumar was conferred with the IPO Motivational Award. The IPO Special Mention Award was won by Pune based Prof. Ganesh Hingmire and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore.

Constituted jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Indian Patents Office (IPO), the National Intellectual Property Awards are given every year since 2009 recognising the use of IPRs as a strategic tool in commerce and industry. Comprising of Rs 1 lakh in cash, a trophy and a citation, the awards are evaluated on the basis of number of IPRs granted / registered, growth in IPR portfolio in the past five years, leveraging of IPRs for achieving commercial goals (valuation, licensing, launching of new products / processes associated with granted / registered IPRs), efforts for inculcating IPR culture (R&D budget, employment of human resources for R&D, collaborations with industries and universities, licensing from other sources) and contribution towards the socio-economic development of the country.

Conferring the awards, on the eve of World Intellectual Property Day celebrations here on Friday, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Commerce and Industry mentioned  about the efforts put in by her ministry in formulating the National IPR Policy. She further apprised that the Think Tank had submitted the draft IPR Policy which will be announced soon after its ready pursuant to ministerial consultations. Ms. Sitharaman also discussed about the human resource challenges being faced by the Patent Office and how the Government of India intends to overcome them. She commended the efforts of individual inventors as well as innovative organisations and institutions for their role in moving India forward on the path of progress and assured the support of Government of India .

On behalf of IIT Bombay , the award was received by Prof. Devang V. Khakhar, Prof. P.M. Mujumdar and Dr. Padma Satish. Dr. Satish Kumar, Distinguished scientist and Chief Controller R&D received the award on behalf of DRDO. Mr. HyunChil Hong, President and CEO, Samsung Electronics India along-with Mr. HyunWoo Bang (Senior Vice President, Public Affairs Team, Samsung Electronics) and Mr. Aloknath De (Senior Vice President & CTO, Samsung R&D India Bangalore) received the award for Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore Pvt. Ltd. Mr. P.K Bajaj, Executive Vice President,  received the award for Larsen & Toubro (Electrical & Automation) while Mr. Gopal Naik, Senior Vice President & Head Legal  along-with his team received the award for Aditya  Birla Retail Limited. Dr. P. Nayak, Secretary, Textiles Committee received the award on behalf of his organization while Dr. K.S. Narayan, Professor and Dean (R&D) and Acting President – receivged the award for Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore.

​We shall take Tourism to the next level: Dr Mahesh Sharma

Our government is determined to take tourism to the next level and make the country one of the most attractive destinations for tourists. This was stated by Dr Mahesh Sharma, Hon’ble Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (Independent Charge) and Minster of State for Civil Aviation while speaking at the Tourism Roundtable at the Global Exhibition on Services (GES), organized by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) here

Tourism has the potential to serve as a major growth engine for the country, for which we need to address the issues plaguing the sector in a time-bound manner. The minister urged the industry to join hands with the government to tap this potential. Elaborating on the vision and the recent steps taken by the government to promote tourism sector, Dr Sharma apprised that the government is specifically focusing on three key areas: Cleanliness, Security and Hospitality.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Ha Van Sieu, Vice Chairman, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said that while India and Vietnam are engaged in intense bilateral co-operation in several areas, the tourist flows between them is still low. The two countries need to work in the area of harnessing the potential of tourism. India provides a vast opportunity for Vietnam to attract tourists in bulk, and necessary steps will be taken to harness this potential. The country would also need support from India in this endeavour, he added.

Lauding the recent initiatives taken by the new government for the tourism sector, Mr Arjun Sharma, Co-Chairman, CII National Committee on Tourism & Chairman, Le Passage to India, underlined pending actions for the sector including development of a road map for the sector through a robust National Tourism Policy, improved connectivity – especially air connectivity, and an empowered tourism board.

Welcoming the participants from a range of countries at the session, Mr Nakul Anand, Chairman, CII National Committee on Tourism and Executive Director, ITC Limited, highlighted the need for unraveling the huge potential of leisure segment of India’s tourism industry. We need to convert this latent natural and economic advantage to competitive advantage. States and union territories have to play a pro-active role in realizing this potential by initiating breakthrough ideas and bringing them to a logical conclusion, said Mr Anand.

Giving his vote of thanks, Mr Subash Verma, Honorary Secretary, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) and Chairman, Travel Plus, said that tourism is one of the most powerful tools for growth and development and praised the government’s initiatives and determination for making India a preferred tourist destination.