The Hindu Business Line : `Raise educational standards to retain competitive edge'

ONLY one out of 30 information technology professionals produced by educational institutions is suitable to work in Tier-I organisations, such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro.

"If we do not improve the standard of education, India's competitive advantage will be seriously affected. Other countries will take away the market from us," Mr S. Mahalingam, Chief Financial Officer, Tata Consultancy Services, has said.

There is a need to upgrade Tier-I and II educational institutions, including regional engineering colleges or State engineering colleges to the levels of IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and IIM (Indian Institute of Management), he said.

He was speaking at a one-day conference on `Building industry - Institute linkages for enhancing competitiveness', organised here on Saturday by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The Indian educational institutions should also explore the Silicon Valley model in the US, wherein ideas and incubation come from universities and later made commercial with active involvement of the industry.

The Silicon Valley has a strong educational base with the presence of universities such as Stanford and Berkeley. These universities have incubated most of the information technology firms in Silicon Valley. In India, cities like Chennai can adopt such a model to help local IT companies with innovative solutions, Mr Mahalingam said.

Mr B. Santhanam, Managing Director, Saint Gobain Glass (India) Ltd, said educational institutions must give more priority to developing soft skills, including communication and social skills among students. Unfortunately, it is a more serious problem in Tamil Nadu on social front, when men and women hardly mingle in colleges.

"How do you expect students to have social skills when they join Tier-I companies and go abroad and mingle there," he said. It is really difficult to identify people even though the students are good. In a recent recruitment of 150 people, his firm had to start with a base of about 6,000 students, he said.

Dr M. Anandakrishnan, Chairman, Madras Institute of Development Studies, urged greater industry-academia interaction in identifying the right student, who can be deployed in companies after their coming out of colleges.

To begin with about 50 colleges and 5,000 students with the right aptitude and motivation could be identified and provided the right education and training to be absorbed later by the industry.