Stressing the need for identifying leadership skills among engineering graduates, Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, urged educational institutions to set up platforms or cooperate with forums working on nurturing leadership skills.
Launching the Tiruchi Cluster of PALS (Pan IIT Alumni Leadership Series) at a function held at National Institute of Technology-Tiruchi (NIT-T) here on Saturday, he said there was a strong need for identifying persons with leadership skills. To achieve the objective, the PALS, primarily with the alumni of IIT- Madras, was started in 2012. It initially arranged a number of lecture series with the aim of giving insight on leadership and technical inputs on various topics to the students of IIT-M. PALS had now evolved as a leading platform to promote leaders and leadership skills. The targeted group need not necessarily come from from IITs and NITs. The concept had been extended to other colleges and leading institutions as well.
Mr. Ramamurthi said that in this era of challenges and innovation, many business models and concepts perceived as futuristic would become obsolete in view of changes taking place rapidly. Many viewed change as threat to job security. But these were not threats but new opportunities to grab. However, the challenges could be faced successfully if the country had good leaders. Leadership was not just leading a group of people or an institution. It was about figuring out challenges to equip the technocrats to cope up with the changing trends. “We need platforms to identify youngsters with leadership skills so as to convert threats into opportunities,” Mr. Ramamurthi said.
G. Kannabiran, Director, in charge, NIT-T, said NIT-T would function as an anchor institute for the Tiruchi Cluster of PALS. The incubation centre and the innovation laboratories of NIT-T would be made available to the cluster colleges and institutions. The Tiruchi Cluster had created an opportunity for the alumni of IITs working in NIT to a lead role in promoting the objective of PALS.
Thiru Srinivasan, chairman, PALS, said Jayaram College of Engineering and MAM College of Engineering in Tiruchi had become partnering institutions in Tiruchi. Alamelu, core member, PALS, and Viayalakshmi Shankar, anchor, Tiruchi Cluster spoke.
