Industrial Training Institutes can create jobs, change livelihoods: Subroto Bagchi at Bengaluru Skill Summit

Bengaluru: IT giant Mindtree co-founder Subroto Bagchi, who was also the former chairman of Odisha Skill Development Authority, said the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) have the potential to create job opportunities and thereby change the livelihood of people.

Speaking at the Bengaluru Skill Summit here on Thursday, Bagchi recalled how the idea of ‘Skilled in Odisha’ was born in June 2016.

“The mission was to shift from skill development to the idea of human transformation, build an aspirational brand Skilled in Odisha,” he said. According to him, the vision they set was that in three years, corporate India should make a beeline in Odisha, not just to hire but to “lock-in” talent.

“In five years, we want a global preference for Odisha’s young men and women across sectors. Nations of the world will come to Odisha to hire, and the Odisha Model must be worth emulating in other parts of the world,” he said. “Karnataka does not require reputational capital. Odisha needed one, and so based on this, first, we went to Leo Burnett, and got them to design a logo for the brand called ‘Skilled in Odisha’,” Bagchi said, explaining how this changed many men and women’s livelihoods.

He also said that transformation needs fractal leadership and maximalist thinking, and so they sent 215 ITI and Polytechnic leaders to Singapore to witness hands-on, heads-on and hearts-on training.

“We send them to Singapore for two to three weeks of leadership training, because skill development for people at the bottom of the pyramid requires maximalist thinking, not minimalist thinking,” he said, stressing the need for skilling young men and women.