'Overhaul present education system'

According to Nasscom chairman Ganesh Natarajan, it is time for a thorough overhaul of the education system.

Instead of pointing fingers at the academic institutions there is a strong need for public-private partnership in this regard, he says in this interview with Prasad Ramasubramanian of CyberMedia News.

Take us through the agenda of Nasscom for the year.

We have defined six key agenda points for the year and the BPO firms with their huge employment contribution and potential are well positioned to take the lead in building collaboration and community and demonstrating their prowess in skills development and inclusiveness. Nasscom's initiatives in this area have already shown results and will be further strengthened during the year.

Talk to us on how you are looking at partnering with education systems in constructive manner in the coming quarters?

I think the time has come for us to look at a thorough overhaul of our education system. We can no longer point fingers at the academic institutions and I feel there is a strong need for public-private partnership in this regard. This would involve governments, real estate developers and definitely traditional educational institutions and establishments. And this would ensure that as we go ahead, we would be able to predict demands in a holistic manner.

As regards BPO, it is all about globalization and this requires skill sets and building up of employability skills. So, education is a very strong focus for Nasscom. There will be enormous focus on education in the next five-year period. There is a need for an education movement across the country and we are looking at partnering with the government to increase the number of IIIT’s through the public-private partnership. The number of PhDs in the country is astonishingly low. I think we need to change this scenario and focus on complete education reforms.

In short term, you may see more IIITs and increase in the number of PhDs but over the long term, you would see a complete revamp of the entire education system in the country.

How critical would Green IT play in Nasscom’s agenda for the future?

We truly and sincerely believe that Green IT in propagating the concept of environment, power utilization, reducing the carbon footprint and many of us have set targets for reducing the carbon footprint in our companies. I am sure IT can show the way in terms of the campuses that are built and in terms of people going out and promoting the protection of the environment. We are looking at partners with whom we can work with and who can make this happen.

Is Nasscom looking at overseas partners to put forth a stronger Green IT initiative?

There are a couple of them and one is a Fortune 100 company which is showing interest in partnering with us. If you look at companies such as Cisco, they have been very active in the Green IT domain and the learning can be incorporated in other markets. Also, we travel a lot and more of video conferencing could be initiated. The airliners would be unhappy but it would make our families happier.

Apart from environment-centric processes and education revamp, is there a need for India to probably learn from countries such as China?

Definitely, China is unbelievable. If you get into a train in Shanghai today, you don’t need to know Chinese, everything is in English and as an investor it’s a pleasure. In Shanghai, you are traveling at 450 Kilometers per hour in the bullet train and it gives you a completely western experience. So, we have to learn to make the experience happen.

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