Manufacturing sector should re-brand itself: CII summit
Many experts now feel India has become fairly competitive, not only due to favourable currency movements but also because of the promise of skills, particularly when it comes to value-added manufacturing.
At CII's manufacturing summit in Mumbai, Baba Kalyani, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Forge, said that if India's skill sets were to be channelised in the right direction, it will emerge as a strong player.
So does manufacturing have the brand to attract top-end talent and engineers?
Representatives from smaller companies at the CII summit complained they are facing an acute shortage of engineers. While the country produces enough engineering talent, the best are mopped up by the IT services industry.
"We need to do something about brand manufacturing. It should look cool and today it is not. Services is cool today," Pradeep Bhargava, Director of Cummins India, acknowledged.
Kalyani said his company has created a talent factory to develop skill sets - it runs different programmes in association with third parties such as the academia. "It will be difficult for smaller companies to do it individually. But they can do it on a cluster basis," he said. Fifteen to 20 small companies can get together to create a skill set, according to him.
The manufacturing sector also needs to re-brand itself as an employer-friendly sector at the bottom-end of its employee pyramid. Lessons from China would help.
The National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, in a recent presentation to the government, suggested building of workers dormitories within easy commuting distance from textile factories. Along with training on contemporary apparel machines, better living conditions could help the textile industry achieve international productivity levels.
VIMAL SINGH
PGDM 1ST
No comments:
Post a Comment