Shillong: A one-day brainstorming session was organized by Asian Confluence at the Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture (AIIC) here on Monday. Making a presentation to a hall overflowing with young entrepreneurs, students and teachers the German Consul-General, Rainer Schmiedchen who arrived in Shillong on Sunday for a 3-day visit said, India and Germany have excellent relations and the Berlin airport is still decorated with ‘Make in India’ buntings from the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Germany for the industrial fair at Hanover some weeks ago.
Inaugurating the one-day session, Mr Schmiedchen said a 10-member steel delegation from Kolkata has just got their visa to visit Germany which has expertise in mining and metallurgy. Stressing on the need for vocational training at the level of school, college and university, the Consul-general said in Germany industry invests in providing apprenticeships for students who are then absorbed by the company. “Germany’s economic miracle is due to the Double Education System which is a twinning between theory (30%) with practice (70%). The blue collared worker in Germany is a proud person who can afford a home, two cars and two children and live as good a life as the white collared person,”Schmiedchen said, adding that India might need to emulate this model to bridge its huge youth unemployment gap and turn its demographic dividend into an asset.
Citing the example of roof making as an activity requiring expertise, Scmiedchen said in Kolkata people have flat concrete roofs that tended to leak and turn the house damp. German technologists have perfected the art of making roofs that would not allow moisture to soak in. He spoke of farmers who are Milk Technologists and said in Germany industry works closely with universities so that theoretical and practical knowledge are well integrated.
Mr MP Bezbaruah, Member North Eastern Council rued the fact that the North Eastern states export raw materials and have allowed value addition to happen outside. He pointed to the large imports of meat and vegetables from outside the region and lamented that Tourism- a journey of imagination is yet to take off in the region.
Prof Ashoke Kumar Dutta, founding director of IIM Shillong who is currently working closely with Asian Confluence (AC) while highlighting the activities of the organization said that the objective of AC was to create a bridge of understanding and cooperation between the North Eastern region and South and South East Asia. “We need to source excellence to break the cycle of poverty which entraps us. We have to get investments in clean industries and create a congenial climate for that to happen,”Prof Dutta said.
Meghalaya Chief Secretary, PBO Warjri endorsed the need to give dignity to all kinds of manual labour. He said that during his recent visit to Germany for the Hanover Industrial fair he noticed that while Asians exhibited products, western countries exhibited technology and machinery. The West still has a good hold on technology development and inventions. “Innovation is what we need but it should be innovation of value and credibility, not a sub-standard technology,” Warjri said adding that India has to stop the brain drain and create a climate where innovations can happen. He lauded the Germans for being proud of whatever work they did. “A family friend proudly acclaimed that her father used to lay pipes and he did that with excellence,” Warjri told the audience.
A presentation by the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce on the German Dual System of Education was made by Sabina Pandey who explained that the availability of skilled labour had kept the unemployment rate in Germany at 7% which is the lowest in the European Union. There are at present several Indi-German training centres in India but the Double Education System providing a course on Mecatronics is being tried out at Don Bosco Pune, Pandey informed.
Explaining the importance of Vocational Education Pandey said this type of education (a) provides personal and social skills (b) it enables students to understand machines and work processes (c) it helps in problem solving strategies and abstracts ideas leading to logical thought processes.
Currently there are over 1000 German companies in India in automobiles, chemicals and electro-technology. This cooperation needs to be strengthened, Pandey who comes from Bavaria in North East Germany stated.
Later a workshop involving entrepreneurs and a question answer session to thrash out the way forward was organized at the AIIC.
Tourism sector: Meanwhile, Consul General of Federal Republic of Germany Rainer Schmiedchen has said that the tourism sector in Meghalaya should have better infrastructure.
Later speaking to media persons, he also said that the state should have a better airport and more private airline companies should operate in the region to connect it with mainland.
Reacting to a query on women entrepreneurs, he said that Germany has been organizing special programmes for women and they want atleast 50 percent of women in every company.
