“The 21st century is the century of knowledge and technology based economies. India’s growth story can never be accomplished in the current global scenario without focusing on knowledge and technology based engineering. Hence it is imperative that the Indian industry collaborates aggressively with institutes, universities and the Govt bodies to initiate joint Research and development (R&D) projects in various keys sectors, which are most critical in the next decade or two,” emphasised H. E. Professor Kaptan Singh Solanki, Governor, Punjab and Haryana and Administrator, UT Chandigarh at the Edu Summit organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in partnership with Indian School of Business (ISB) and Govt of Haryana at ISB Campus, Mohali.
 
“It is most vital that industry invests heavily in (R&D) to find innovative ways in both services and manufacturing sectors. To succeed in our ‘’Make in India’ campaign, in true sense, our Manufacturing has to be both cost and resource effective as well as environmentally sustainable, with least impact on climate. To attain this, the only solution is active collaboration and partnerships of industry in the higher education and R&D projects with governments, universities, institutes, global community colleges and other education tools and service providers,” further added the Governor.
 
Vijai Vardhan, Additional Chief Secretary-Higher Education, Government of Haryana shared that Haryana Government is committed to create Centers of Excellence under PPP mode with industry to reach out with the latest knowledge, technology and research to as many youths as possible across the state.
 
Ajit Rangnekar, Co-Chair, CII Edu Summit & Dean, Indian School of Business said, “Knowledge and technology is the key in each sector, be it services or manufacturing. The growth of the knowledge economy has gained momentum with rapid globalisation of ideas and acceleration of technological advancement. To accelerate growth and development, India must initiate strong policies to build R&D capability, invest in human resource development, align education systems with sectoral needs and tap investments from the private sector, with the Government playing a critical role as a catalyst.”
 
Throwing light on the initiatives undertaken by CII, Vijay Thadani, Chairman, CII National Committee on Higher Education and Vice Chairman & Managing Director, NIIT Ltd said, “CII is particularly concerned about the present status of higher education in the country and strongly believes that the country cannot achieve the universalization of education without the efforts of the private sector. CII has been focusing on policy advocacy with the Govts on key issues, forging PPP partnerships, strengthening and expanding industry-academia linkages etc. Our target is 10 Nobel laureates from India in next decade.”
 
The Summit was well attended by senior government officials, industry representatives, students and other prominent personalities of the Tricity region.