AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

NT Bureau
Chennai, Sept 21:
 

        In order to develop soft skills of IT students and budding entrepreneurs, the Union government would create nearly 1,500 Centres of Excellence in the next three years throughout the country.

        Delivering the inaugural address at the CII-Logistics summit, Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar said that the government was giving priority to skills development and taking major initiatives to promote talents suitable for the industry needs.

        Upgrading the human resource and bring down the cost of logistics were major challenges in the logistics industry, he said. There was a huge employment potential in the logistics sector, but the necessary skill sets and trained manpower were required to push up the industry to new heights, he averred.

        The Minister pointed out that a Japanese company had planned to invest in a big way in logistics and supply-chain management in Chennai through a partnership with Indian firm to ensure the supply of automobile components to northern States in a time-bound manner. The country would emerge as a global hub for the supply of highly-skilled labour till 2035 and the government would take a slew of measures to groom young talents across industry verticals, he declared.

        Sanmar group chairman N Kumar said India had to catch up with other countries in logistics sector for the country was placed below China, Thailand and Mexico in attracting investment and business in this sector.

        An MoU was signed between the Confederation of Indian Industry and Flanders Institute for Logistics from Belgium on the occasion. Francis Rome, director, business development, Flanders Institute, in his speech informed that Belgium could be a gateway to Europe for Indian enterprises with its world-class ports and road infrastructure.

        Innovation was not only technology driven but also process dependent and the two factors have to be integrated in an useful manner to uplift logistics industry for which Belgium has shown considerable importance, Francis said.

        Conference head H R Srinivasan urged the logistics sector have be given all the incentives like that of any other industry for the companies to arrange finance easily to manage their complex operations. Later, the Minister presented awards to companies which had excelled in their different fields of operations related to logistics sector.