The Hindu Business Line : Need to increase seats in technical institutions: PM

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh on Friday underscored the need for increasing the number of seats at all levels of technical education from ITIs to IITs apart from enhancing the quality of technical education to overcome the "manpower gap" which is emerging at various levels of the economy.

Private role

Stating that the gap was particularly exacerbated by the migration of talent from the country, Dr Singh called for greater government and private sector partnership and "significantly greater participation and investment from private sector and industrial houses" in higher and technical education to ease this gap in supply of trained manpower.

He repeatedly urged the private sector to act as a propelling force and come forward in a big way to help the nation move ahead in the field of technical education.

Addressing the gathering after formally inaugurating the Goa campus of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS, Pilani) at Sancoale in South Goa, Dr Singh remarked that graduates from some of our best institutions are increasingly being sought by employers worldwide. This accentuates the supply-demand gap at home.

Global demand

He admitted that this is in part also due to the global demand for skilled Indian labour, especially in West and South-East Asia. He was worried because apart from quantitative gaps, qualitative gaps are also emerging and underlined the need for increasing seats in technical institutions and the need to improve the quality of training at all levels.

BITS campus

The Goa campus of BITS is set up with an investment of Rs 130 crore on a sprawling 188-acre land leased by Zuari Industries Ltd, a Birla Group company. Dr Singh emphasised the need for making country's education system more vocationally-oriented to increase employment opportunities by raising technical skills. In that context, he disclosed that the Government has taken up a project to upgrade 500 of industrial training institutes (ITIs).

Stating that Confederation of Indian Industries had come forward to help with one hundred of these, the Prime Minister asserted, "If required, we should be ready to set up more of such institutions."

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