CII for conducive milieu to foster manufacturing

 
Speaking on the sidelines, CII President Venu Srinivasan called for interventions from the State governments — to reduce barriers and have friendly policies— thereby, helping boost the manufacturing industry.

However, rather ironically, Srinivasan spoke of this only after State Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao left. He further conceded that the CII does not have ‘negotiations with the States’ on its agenda.

Similarly, even during the session speakers spoke of several generic things, including the looming gap between the colleges and the industry in the country, mainly due to lack of training in specific skill-sets, compared to other countries — primarily China.

Sticking close to CII’s pet subject, innovation, speakers also stressed upon the need for innovation in the sector. While calling upon the need to invest in education and the need to develop skill-sets that are industry specific, they pointed out the benfits China has reaped through such initiatives.

Speakers also called upon the Indian manufacturers to think globally, so that they may own products and designs. 

However, besides technical presentations on the need for best practices and global product development, the discussions appeared to be repeats of earlier years’ sessions on the same subject.  A large part was also spent hinting at the degree of automony industries in other countries enjoy that we lack here.

Poor monsoon

Further, Srinivasan expressed concerns over the poor monsoon threatning to impact the country’s growth.

“If the poor monsoon persists, then India will fail to meet its GDP projections of seven per cent,” he said, condeding that we may end up touching only  6-6.5 per cent.