CII to set up four Centres of Excellence on skills in North

Updated on: Friday, April 15, 2011

Industry body CII today said it would set up four Centres of Excellence on skills in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh this year in a bid to align human skills with industry requirements.

"Our main thrust this year will be on skills and education and we will set up four Centres of Excellence in four states," said newly appointed CII Northern Region Chairman Vijay Thadani told reporters here.

Noting that the region has not received a proportionate share of investments, Thandani said that in knowledge economy, availability of skilled people was a prerequisite for attracting investments.

He also announced setting up of 'University-Industry Partnerships' on the lines of the ongoing initiatives at the Delhi University and the Punjab Technical University.

Scope of these partnerships would include setting up of finishing schools for students, providing research opportunities to faculty and assisting in curriculum upgradation, he said.

"We plan to set up one partnership each in Chandigarh, Punjab, UP, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand," he added.

Thadani further said CII would also lay focus on micro, small and medium enterprises to help them access knowledge, resources and markets by starting mentoring services by large companies.

"CII will set up a MSME Help Desk at CII in Chandigarh to provide expert advice to MSMEs on operational, marketing, strategic and legal issues," announced the Chairman.

Thadani, who is also CEO of NIIT, informed that CII would also explore newer markets in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Indonesia and some of the other Asian countries through international missions for learning and business development.

"For this CII would undertake a Survey to determine international business markets our members want to access," Thadani said.

Announcing the setting up of Tax Advisory desk here, to resolve the membership tax enquiries, the Chairman also touched upon the issue of GST.

"Lack of consensus among the state governments is the major hurdle and one of our prime task this year would be to play a proactive role in bringing state governments on board," he said.

CII to set up four Centres of Excellence on skills in North

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