Plug industry-academia gap: Vice President

Visakhapatnam: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said that the education system needs to be revamped and the academicians should focus on useful and application-oriented concepts to make the youth ready for jobs in industry.

Addressing the gathering at two-day session, jointly organised by Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE) AP Chambers of Commerce and Industry, IIM-Visakhapatnam, Andhra University and NRDC and CII, on 'Industry-academia interaction for improvement of the quality of academics' held at Dr Y V S Murty Auditorium, the Vice President calls for collective efforts of all the stakeholders and urged the policy makers and industrial representatives to hone skills among youth by collaborating with the institutions.

Hailing the efforts made by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for making Telugu as a compulsory language in schools, the Vice President said similar move in Andhra Pradesh would help students gain a grip over their native language.

He said in the process of learning English, the native language should not be forgotten. Naidu also hailed the draft education policy that focuses on holistic education with a slice in the syllabus and inclusion of yoga, art and crafts, moral science, among other classes.

Venkaiah Naidu said it's a high time for academicians to introspect and find out why universities could not find a place in top 100 global rank and where do they lag to achieve the same. He observed 65-75 per cent of girls in several universities happen to be gold medalists which itself is a welcome sign.

He called for a societal movement to contribute to growth of nation and make it corruption-free. Further, the Vice-President said such forum would lead to further discussions, providing the right impetus to academia and industry to collaborate with one another and come up with concrete recommendations.

CII zonal chairman KVV Raju assured to establish direct linkage with 25 institutions in Visakhapatnam and industries in a pragmatic way for skill development and mentorship.

Experts recommended a platform connecting industries to post the problems they face, share challenges and solutions. They said that while academicians can ideate, incubate and invent, industries were expected to innovate and invest and incorporate to achieve desired results and bridge industry-academia gap. The inaugural session was attended by academicians, industry representatives.