Kant suggests compulsory apprenticeship
Amitabh Kant, CEO, National Institute of Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has called for more industry-academia collaboration and develop requisite skills in technology urgently.
Addressing the Third Manufacturing Summit 2017 in New Delhi, he said India should not miss the opportunity presented by the fourth industrial revolution, which will also create new kinds of highly paid and highly skilled jobs.
He also pointed out that digitalisation will radically change manufacturing as the connected world will see customer-centric manufacturing.
Kant has suggested a compulsory apprenticeship programme to encourage hands-on experience on technology as early as higher secondary level.
The second disruption would be a shift from internal combustion to shared, connected and electric mobility, felt Kant.
The earlier India embraces both, the better, he stated.
He has urged the industry to think big and think global.
Thinking global will require quality and conformance to global standards which can be achieved through digitalisation, he emphasised.
To effectively embrace digitalization, Kant asked the industry to foster competitive advantage across their value chains, focus on productivity and fill productivity gaps to compete globally, fortify quality, prioritize investment in innovation and R&D and invest in lifelong learning of employees.
A compendium of case studies on smart manufacturing “Manufacturing In India: Creating a smarter future” was also released on the occasion.
Dr Jan Mrosik, CEO, Digital Factories, Siemens AG, added that digitalization will bring opportunities to those who embrace it but be a big risk for those who do not.
He highlighted that lack of digitalization was the main reason why half of FORTUNE 500 companies have disappeared from the list since 2000.
Dr Mrosik added that in the current scenario, digitalization is the best way to fulfil strict business requirement of speed, flexibility, quality and efficiency.
Sunil Mathur, Chairman, CII Smart Manufacturing Council, said that Smart Manufacturing is here to stay.
India must start competing at a global level and build competitiveness.
He emphasized driving the Smart Manufacturing movement and finding the right model for India.
The summit was organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi on 15 Nov 2017. fii-news.com
