Jammu, Nov 25: Calling for closer collaboration between academia and industry, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Thursday said the symbiotic relation between the two was significantly important to give new dimension to knowledge economy.
 “At one hand it will benefit the industrial sector and on the other ensure easy entrance and placement of educated youth in the private sector job market,” he added.
 Addressing the 8th University-Industry Council Symposium on ‘Industry-Academia collaboration for the development of India with focus on Northern region’, Omar Abdullah highlighted the need for cementing relations between the seats of higher learning and the industry for the development and growth of economy, an official statement said.
  “While Industry requires trained efficient and qualified manpower to run the units on modern lines, the products of universities require easy access to the jobs available in the industrial sector”, he said impressing upon the both to work out constant rapport and collaboration to benefit each other. “This would also help the Government in its efforts to develop local Small and Medium Entrepreneurship (SME) sector as also address the employment crisis”.
 The Chief Minister said that the ties between Industries and Universities and the Intra-University linkage would help to develop curricula of studies in demand in the industrial sector and pave way of the products of higher educational institutions to get easily absorbed in the private sector. “This would also benefit the industrial sector to get trained and qualified persons comparatively on lower cost”, he said.
 Omar Abdullah said that this symbiosis between the two would in turn help give necessary boost to economic activities and open vistas of development. “The collaboration of the two in a state like Jammu and Kashmir is of more importance where there is mismatch between the products of the higher educational institutions and the market requirement”, he said and called for meshing of efforts by the Government, Universities and Industries to remove this deficit.
 The Chief Minister said that the linkage between Industry and higher seats of education in research projects would also benefit the both. “While the farmer could obtain effective and qualitative research base for launching ventures and upgrading these, the later could earn money to generate resources for further expansion and financial independence”, he explained.
 He said that the Universities should also venture upon in preparing Project Reports, Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) and acting as third party monitoring agency for Government works. “This will further strengthening the financial position of Universities and help these to work more freely and without depending upon the Government financing”, he said and asked the Universities to build proper capacity in this regard.
  “Similarly utilizing the vast research infrastructure of the higher learning institutions, the Industry can get necessary research material on lesser market cost”, he said adding that local entrepreneurs could also utilize the knowledge and research base of the Universities to flourish and develop as per market trends.
 Omar said the collaboration between the two for incubation and innovation would give considerable fillip to the entrepreneurship development programme and help to put the research of the higher educational institutions into practical use for growth and stability of economy.
 The Chief Minister also emphasized on collaboration between the Northern States especially hill States of Utranchal, Himachal and J&K as these were confronted with more or less similar issues pertaining to the growth and development of economy as also creating necessary link between higher educational institutions and the Industry.
 “In the recent ‘State of the States’ seminar organized by the India Today, maximum awards were won by the hill states as per the ratings in expert survey”, he said and stressed on coordinated approach by the educational institutions in these States to collaborate with Industry in fixing the curricula and making it market oriented”, he elaborated.
 In his speech, the Vice Chancellor of Jammu University, Varun Sahni dwelt in detail about the capacity building in the educational institutions to produce products of high marketability and professional value. He underlined the importance of knowledge economy and learning economy in present day global scenario.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:00:00 IST