and Industry, Coimbatore
Press Release
March 26, 2010: State Manufacturing Competitiveness Council
We welcome the setting up of a State Manufacturing Competitiveness Council under the Chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to focus on the manufacturing sector. The Council will have the best focus with the Deputy Chief Minister in his unique position to provide the robust and practical solutions for the betterment of manufacturing.
Tamil Nadu was the first in the country that had announced during February an exclusive policy for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME’s) sector offering a range of incentives and support for infrastructure development, subsidies for investment in industrially backward areas, capital investment, technology development, marketing support, training, etc.
Close on the heels of this, announcement on the Manufacturing Competitiveness Council has come as a appropriate fillip at the right time, to sustain the growth of manufacturing industries in Tamil Nadu. This is an important step and Chamber wishes to extend all support and cooperation in all the initiatives of the Council.
With the liberalisation and globalisation of the Indian economy the manufacturing sector in India have unprecedented opportunities on the one hand and face serious challenges on the other to become globally competitive.
Government has a crucial role to play in upgrading infrastructure of the industries, reducing cost of basic utilities, minimising compliance costs, innovation, R & D, technology development, entrepreneurship promotion, HRD, skill building at all levels due to non-availability of technical man power, etc.
The alarming problem now is on the skilled labour shortage. Upgrading of skills, institutional linkages and the value addition through technical change, will increasingly determine the sustainability of business. India has only 5,100 industrial Training Institutes and 1,745 polytechnics compared to China’s 5,00,000 Vocational Education and Training Institutes. India’s programme covered only 175 trades approximately imparting low quality skills. They have outdated syllabi without much knowledge on market conditions or of imparting multi-skills.
There also seems to be the workforce being nudged out of the formal sector to the informal sector. If the trends in a industry does not require much skill but can pay more wages, there is a shift of the workers shifting themselves to unskilled jobs.
Private-Public Partnerships must be encouraged, more ITI’s opened and integrated to the industry specific needs must be immediately formulated to lead Tamil Nadu in the path towards progress.
We are very confident the Manufacturing Competitiveness Council will address this alarming issue on a priority basis along with providing impetus to other ways and means for enhancing the competitiveness of manufacturing sector.
Mahendra Ramdas
President