New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: The National skills & Entrepreneurship Innovation conclave concluded here on Friday. The two-day virtual conclave was a huge hit with over 700 delegates and 50 speakers from different universities, skill development departments of the Government of India and state governments and representatives from the industry taking part.
Organized by APAC News Network in association with the Department of Labour and Skills, Government of Kerala the conclave attracted several speakers who shared their thoughts on the challenges and the future of skilling in India.
The program chair, Satyajeet Rajan, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Labour & Skills Department, Government of Kerala in his concluding remarks said, “According to studies, in the future there would be just 10 international universities as the world is going online and students from across the world would make a bee-line to these universities. Indian universities too need to work to make space in the top universities.â€
Some of the common points that reverberated through two days included the need to bridge the gap between the academic and industry, gaining the trust of industry, how to make incubation centres in universities become more productive, government regulation on universities, the chasm between research and development and striking a balance with entrepreneurship.
Several examples of forging ties with the industry came to the fore. For instance, Dr Mahendra Sharma, Pro Chancellor, Ganpat University shared, “An industry integrated approach has to be nurtured. Industry inside the university is the way out. 62 vendors of Maruti take away students every year.”
Going a step further, Prof Prabhat Ranjan, Vice Chancellor, DY Patil International University said, “”Industry imports technology and universities train them in centres of excellence. We need to change the game. Universities should become R&D centres set up by industry.â€
While speaking about skill development, another speaker, Vineet Gupta, Founder & Trustee, Ashoka University & Managing Director, Jamboree Education shared the success story of Ashoka: “We have CM Good Governance program in which 24 students work in each district and end up working in various depts of Haryana Govt.”
While the challenges in India remain, there have been several bright spots. Dr. Bhavani Rao R , Director, Ammachi labs, Amritapuri UNESCO Chair in Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality, Amritapuri said, “We developed simulators for human soft skills training. Also built robots for behavioural change.”
Similarly, PVG Menon , Chief Executive Officer, Electronics Sector Skill Council spoke about the ESSC initiatives, he said, “We have a footprint across 29 states and union territories. In eight years we trained 12 lakh people and six lakh got wage enrollment.”
When India was reeling under the Covid-19 pandemic, IIT Kanpur came up with innovations. Prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, KENT chair for entrepreneurship &innovation, IIT Kanpur and Advisor to the National Startup Council said, “”IIT Kanpur came up with a mask that the Prime Minister wears. The students also made an ICU ventilator.” He further added, “There is an ecosystem that enables innovation and IIT Kanpur has been striving towards this end.â€
Navin Mittal, IAS, Commissioner, Collegiate and Technical Education Department, Government of Telangana said, “We have started a incubator Osmania University Idea Labs that encourages students, alumnae and others.”
Majority of the speakers voted for a conducive environment. Echoing a similar view was M Nagarajan (IAS), Director – Higher Education Department, Government of Gujarat who batted for an Indianised startup ecosystem. He added, “Startups should relate to local and contemporary problems.”Â
“In the last four years we have been successful in changing the mindset. We have good number of startups in green tech, AR and VR,” said Prasanta Biswal, Evangelist, Startup Odisha, Government of Odisha.Â
Entrepreneurship in India has a long way to go but the energy, willingness, awareness and the urge to change to the new world order was evident at the two-day conclave.
