Human capital critical to manufacturing growth; Krishnamurthy

New Delhi, May 7 (UNI) Describing human capital as the most critical resource to achieve a sustained growth in the manufacturing sector, an Indian official said the biggest concern staring the nation today is of having highly skilled manpower to run the sector.

This was stated by Dr V Krishnamurthy, Chairman, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC), while launching the post graduate programme for executives for visionary leadership in manufacturing (PGPEX-VLM), here today.

He said while India has done well by recording impressive growth in the manufacturing sector, the biggest concern today is of having highly skilled manpower to run the sector and sustain growth by properly tapping human resource.

The programme, run jointly for the first time by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM), is expected to produce 300 visionary leaders in the manufacturing field in the next three years, he added.

Dr Krishnamurthy thanked Confederation of Indian industry (CII), Japanese International Cooperation Agency, Ministry of Human Resources Development and Professor Shoji Shiba of Japan, who along with IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Madras and IIM-Calcutta helped to develop the programme.

Japanese Ambassador to India Yasukuni Enoki expressed the hope that the programme would enable India to regain its dominant position in the manufacturing world which, he pointed out, the country had enjoyed in the pre-colonial era in the 16th and 17th centuries.

CII President R Seshasayee said development of quality higher education, enabling the manufacturing industry to attract and retain best talent and to develop a critical mass of intellectual property through research and development (R&D) initiatives are three key challenges facing the Indian industry. But he hoped that these concerns would be ably met through this year-long programme.

Its first session for the year 2007-08 will commence in August.

UNI