TENHIPALAM: The Government will appoint an expert committee to study and identify areas of potential industrial growth in the State, Minister for Industries Elamaram Karim has said.

He was speaking after inaugurating `Ascend,' a management mela of Calicut University's Department of Commerce and Management Studies, on the university campus here on Friday.

He said the expertise of smart bureaucrats would be utilised for the study, which would be a retrospect on why Kerala lagged in its industrial growth.

He said a paper by the Centre had pointed an accusing finger at Kerala for its failure in maintaining growth in production. The State's place in international export was below one per cent, he said.

Mr. Karim called upon the universities and other higher education institutions to orient their research towards helping the State's industry. More studies should be conducted on how to revive the languid industries of the State, he said.

He said he would talk to Education Minister M.A. Baby about ways to converge the academic and industrial strengths of the State.

The Minister said that there was no basis for the allegations that Kerala's industry did not prosper because of militant trade unionism. Quoting a study by the Confederation of Indian Industries, Mr. Karim said that the national work loss average was below that of Kerala.

Mr. Karim said that BPOs and call centres were not permanent solutions for unemployment. Outsourcing, he said, will not solve the problem of unemployment.

What the State badly needs is institutions of high quality such as Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, he added.

Calicut University Pro Vice-Chancellor N. Gopinathan Pillai presided over the function.

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