The Hindu Business Line : Narayana Murthy calls for better quality in education

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept. 7 If India is to create world beating companies, the country needs a strong base of productive workers, a world-class education system and a vast pool of talented leaders, said Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Addressing the inaugural session of the annual conference of the National Institute of Personnel Management in the city, he said that both skilled and semi-skilled workers are essential for India’s progress.

Quality Education

To create a base of skilled workers, India needs to improve literacy, provide people with better access to education and improve the quality of education.

He also argued that the country needs to equip people with job-oriented and problem solving skills. If all Indians do not have access to good quality education, it will not be possible to sustain world-beating companies in the country.

There is also a need for a massive skills development programme, in the public-private partnership mode, across the country, Mr Narayana Murthy added.

As part of creating a world-class education system in India, universities must be given academic and financial autonomy, he said. Similarly, research should find a place in the university ecosystem in India.

Creating Excellence

In the first technical session on ‘overview of the talent supply-demand scene’, Mr Arun Maira, Chairman, The Boston Consulting Group (India) Pvt Ltd, said that human resource practitioners must be strategists and not technicians.

Similarly, human resource professionals should be leaders and should be an inspiration to people in the company, he added.

Other sessions included one on ‘innovation in sourcing talent’ and another on ‘creating excellence in talent management’.

The conference’s final technical session on ‘high performance work cultures-values, ethics and workforce practices’ will be held on Saturday.