Vijay Nair, senior general manager, HR Administration and Employee Relations, Mahindra and Mahindra, Pune, said on Thursday that the industry wanted management graduates to have knowledge of not only about their own field but also related fields.
He was speaking after inaugurating a management conclave organised by the Manipal Institute of Management in Manipal.
Mr. Nair said many things had changed in the industry in the past 10 years. Requirements from professionals had increased. It wanted perfect people having knowledge of all fields. Engineers had to come up with business idea, while HR professionals had to have the knowledge of engineering. The things learnt in colleges were not of much help. “Students have to be perfectly trained. But how to do it is the question,” he said.
Pro-Chancellor of Manipal University H.S. Ballal said there were 3,000 management and 4,000 engineering colleges in the country. But only 25 per cent of the graduates from these colleges were employable. This was because of the gap between the industry and academia.
Conclaves such as the one organised by MIM went a long way in reducing this gap. Besides, Manipal University had appointed experts from industry as adjunct or visiting faculty to bridge the gap. Placement records of engineering and management colleges of the university were good. But having engineers and doctors who did not get employment despite being educated would create a major problem. Underemployment was more dangerous than unemployment, he said.
The cost of education and healthcare had increased. A reason for increase in the cost of healthcare was high prices of medicines. Hence, the university in its medical institutions was using generic drugs and providing health cards to help poor people. Rural healthcare facilities had to be improved as 70 per cent of the population of the country lived in villages. As regards education, the university was providing free-ships and scholarships to students in the top five per cent bracket, Prof. Ballal said.
Institute director P.R. Chadaga welcomed the gathering. Conclave coordinator T. Jagannath was present.
