'Policies focused on skills help boost innovation'

Governments need to do more than just sign Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) to attract investment, said Priyank Kharge, IT & BT and Tourism Minister. He was speaking at a leadership summit, ‘Re-launch India’, hosted by IIM Bangalore.

“All governments need to step back and see if we just need the MoUs or we want to boost skill sets and increase employability. Only when we have policies focussing on skills will we be able to invite investments and make ideas happen,” he said.

Kharge said that in Karnataka, the government is focussed on opening centres of excellence to boost skills and in turn, innovation. He said that the state is partnering with France-based 3D design and engineering software company Dassault Systemes to open a centre of excellence in aerospace management.

“The policy of the Karnataka government has been ‘ideate, innovate and invent.’ We did not want to remain the hub of back-office operations of the world. We have encouraged strong partnership between R&D centres and industry. We have repositioned ourselves and have made a name in IoT (Internet of Things), Big Data, Analytics and much more,” he said.

The purpose of the meet organised by Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM) students was to discuss steps to be taken to launch India in the global arena in areas such as manufacturing, startups and digital power. Corporate leaders such as Phil Shaw, CEO of Lockheed Martin Pvt Ltd, Srivats Ram, MD of Wheels India Ltd,
Rajeev Kaul, MD of Aequs, were among those who participated.