Call to improve high-tech education

The Bureaucracy, the Military, Industry and Academia got together on Saturday in New Delhi to speak with one voice on the need to improve the teaching of high technology in India.

Dr Ajay Kumar, secretary, defence production, in his valedictory address at the conference on Upgrading Technical Education: The Essence of "Make in India", emphasised the need of the domestic education system to focus on design and IP (Intellectual Property) creation.

The conference was organised by Global Dialogue Review (GDR), a think tank and an internationally reputed foreign affairs journal.

GDR chairman Moses Manoharan, in his introductory remarks,  pointed out that the conference was taking place at a critical juncture, as India embarked on a journey towards greater reliance on domestic industry to produce state-of-art equipment and systems. He said that a factor hampering this endeavour was the lack of "World Class" teaching institutions.

Lt. General P.J.S. Pannu, the deputy chief, Integrated Defence Staff and the head of technology institutions in the armed forces, in his keynote speech at a conference, called for more forums to discuss the upgrading of higher technical education to meet the country's needs for the next decade.  

Air Marshal M. Matheswaran (Retd.), former Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff suggested at the conference that foreign higher technology institutions be made part of any offset requirement in any equipment acquisition deal.

Mr. Deepak Talwar, Global Vice President Procurement for Engineering of Thales, asserted that Indian skill creation will gain in ambition if decision makers provided more encouragement for the participation of industries in improving the academic infrastructure of a country.

Mr. Sameer Sonpavede, CEO & Managing Director, AvioHeliTronics InfoSystems stressed the fact that the Indian educational infrastructure was fine-tuned to cater only to the engineering services segment, and was largely out of its depth in developing engineers for applications to match the challenges of innovation.

Dr. Bertrand de Hartingh, Counsellor for Cooperation & Cultural Affairs, French Institute in India - Country Director, sought to focus attention on enhancing higher technical education through collaborations with globally reputed institutions of excellence.

Air Vice Marshal Vivek Rajhans, Commandant, Military Institute of Technology in Pune, believed institutions such as his were engaged in improving the technical skills of armed forces personnel  to contribute towards creating to enlarging India's  pool of engineering talent to help the "Make in India" succeed.  

Air Marshal M. Matheswaran (Retd.), former deputy chief of Integrated Defence Staff suggested at the conference that foreign higher technology institutions be made part of any offset requirement in equipment acquisition contracts.

Others who spoke at the conference included Dr Eyal Benjamin, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Studies at Tel Aviv University, and Mr. Ankur Kanaglekar, Head of Strategic Business Development, Boeing.