The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Talent lies undetected in rural areas: Minister

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Tamil Nadu

Talent lies undetected in rural areas: Minister

Staff Reporter

Call to take advantage of demographic boom

Photo: M. Moorthy

Sharing views: D. Purandareswari (centre), Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, in Pudukottai, on Thursday. —

PUDUKKOTTAI: While industries are evincing interest in entering into tie-ups with urban institutions, similar association must also be strengthened with colleges based in rural areas where great talent lies undetected, the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandareswari said on Thursday.

The country’s future as an economic superpower lies in taking advantage of demographic boom.

Higher education sector has to respond with dynamism to keep pace with job creation, the Minister said, addressing the valedictory of ISTE-CON 2008Trichy at Sudharsan Engineering College.

Such conferences are essential in rural areas to get a feel of the human resource needs of domestic and international markets, against the backdrop of the entire world looking towards India for fulfilling human resource requirements, she said.

The private sector has been supplementing the Government initiative to upgrade educational infrastructure for some time now to address geographical and demographic challenges.

As the economy grows, the higher education sector upon which the responsibilities of enhancing opportunities and ensuring quality of deliverance has been put to test, she observed, advocating international or national accreditation for institutions.

Ms. Purandareswari noted that participation of universities in research was low and 57 per cent of faculties were without Ph.D. or M.Phil. qualification.

Institutions aiming at conforming to industrial requirements can increase the success rate of placements by inviting senior persons from industries to teach students, and by deputing teachers to industries for undertaking projects.

Superpower

Offering felicitations, R. Natarajan, Former Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education, said that while India was emerging in the forefront on the spheres of knowledge, economy, Information Technology and Innovation, the question was when and how India will emerge as a superpower.

The interest of Indian youngsters in engineering is a strength, he said, calling for the strengthening of primary, secondary and higher educational systems.

V.K. Sundaram, Conference Chairman and Sudharsan Engineering College Chairman; P.K. Balasubramanian, Conference Secretary also spoke.

With the theme ‘Industrial Expectations and Institutional Preparations’, the two-day conference encompassed numerous sessions on ‘Understanding Industrial Needs’, ‘Meeting Industrial Needs’, ‘Placement Issues and Alternatives’, ‘Washington Accord and Its Implications’, ‘Adequacy of Institutional Preparations’, and ‘Achieving Industrial Acceptance’.

R. Hariharan, Development Coordinator, ISTE, read out the recommendations made at the conference.

The recommendations included encouraging students to do research work during graduation, and creation of industry institute partnership cell in all engineering colleges to rectify the mismatch between institutional preparations and industry requirements.

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