AP CM urges industry to work with academia

New Delhi, Nov 10 (INN): The three-day FICCI Higher Education Summit 2016 was kicked off here with Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu urging industry to associate with academic institutions to find innovative solutions to issues that embrace the economy and society as the traditional approach to problem-solving in today's knowledge economy will not give the desired results.

The Summit which includes a global conference and exhibition, is supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Services Export Promotion Council, Government of India.

Inaugurating the 12th edition of the Summit on Thursday on the theme, 'Education for Tomorrow: Learn in India-Learn for the World', Naidu said the world is into the 4th industrial revolution which is characterized by technology and Internet of Things. Sensors, robotics and machine learning are the order of the day, making things happen real time. This scenario, he said, called for close analysis on what type of human resources we need to build to take on the new challenges.

India, Naidu said, was blessed with a demographic dividend that would last for another four to five decades. The energies of our young people need to be channelized into the study of mathematics and technology and IT where India has a strong advantage. Applied knowledge, he added, was critical in translating the learnings into benefits for society.

The Chief Minister said that higher education in Andhra Pradesh has focused on strengthening state universities, establishing premier national institutes and attracting private sector investments into the higher education sector, among other reforms.

He said during the last two years the landmark A.P. Private universities (Estb. & Regulation) Act 2016 was passed which has been hailed by educationists as the best in the country. Letter of Intent has been signed for eight Greenfield private universities in Andhra Pradesh at an investment of Rs. 9000 crore. These universities will, in the next 10 years enroll 100,000 students. Several other major proposals were also being processed with a view to making Andhra Pradesh the education hub of the world.

On the occasion, two MoUs were exchanged between the Government of Andhra Pradesh and FICCI. The first was with Sri Venkateswara University (SVU), Tirupati to set up National Knowledge Functional Hub (NKFH) for sustained Industry-Academia engagement resulting in employability of engineering graduates in Andhra Pradesh. The second one was for setting up 'FICCI Center of Excellence for Grass root Initiatives and Development' in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh.

Also, two Knowledge Papers -- FICCI-EY Report 2016 and FICCI-EFMD Paper -- were released by the dignitaries.