BARONESS SANDIP VERMA, PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECY FROM UK TO INTERACTS WITH INDUSTRY FROM REGION
NewZNew (Chandigarh) : Baroness Sandip Verma, Parliamentary Under Secretary, Department of Energy & Climate Change, United Kingdom (UK) interacted with senior industry representatives from the region at a session on Strengthening UK Trade with Punjab and Haryana jointly organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and The British High Commission at CII NR Headquarters in sector 31 A, here today.
“Though India comfortably placed in skills training at the basic level, however the country, especially northern states of Punjab and Haryana lack specialized skill sets which are imperative to enable them to achieve their future goals including the new Govt’s dream project – Make in India Campaign. UK is more than committed to share its best practices in technical and vocational education and our expertise to help Punjab and Haryana achieve their desired skilling objectives. We can open joint Centers of Excellence or host delegations in both countries”, shared Baroness Verma.
“UK is very pleased with the newly gained certainty and consistency in business environment and policy making in India reinforced by Modi’s Make in India campaign. Both countries need to work collectively on climate change as well and we wish to take further our joint initiatives as per the toolkit that I launched here last year. It clearly sets out the causes and impacts of climate change at local level and what legislators can do to change it, including through legislation and through their strong people to people connections in their own constituencies. The legislators, the industry, institutes and we all together in the society should spread the message down the wire to the people concerned across states. Climate is far above politics and we all should work in tandem in to ensure a carbon free earth for our future generations”, she added.
“Further, 65% of India’s population is young, which is a huge asset but and India needs to figure out how to use this as a resource and UK can be a great source of learnings in this regard. We really take India very very seriously and hence we are India’s 4th largest investor and aspire to become No.1”, informed the UK Baroness.
Aimed at expanding the business ties between UK, Punjab and Haryana, the interaction dwelled on issues concerning skilling, education, climate change, infrastructure, soil productivity, use of renewable sources of energy, increasing forest cover etc where UK and the northern states of Punjab and Haryana can collaborate.
“UK is wants to really strengthen ties with Punjab and Haryana. We would work together in areas like women empowerment, climate change and energy. Growing a green, low carbon and skilled India is good for both UK and India. Both our governments and business communities have a lot of expertise, technology and experience that we can share to our mutual economic benefit”, highlighted Mr David Lelliott OBE, Deputy High Commissioner, British Deputy High Commission, Chandigarh. UK is very much keen and committed to provide all kind of support to Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana.
K K Kataria, Director Department of Technical Education, Government of Haryana said that “There is a an urgent need to create a skilled manpower in Haryana which is employment ready for 21st century”.
Mr T L Satyapraksh, Managing Director, HSIIDC, Government of Haryana said that “The formal industry is witnessing 15-18% growth, whereas growth of informal industry is pulling down the whole economy thereby reducing the overall contribution of industrial growth in GDP. He stressed that skill development is the key for growth of industry in Haryana.He highlighted that Haryana stands number one in in State competitiveness index between smaller states of India. Mentioning about the cluster development program he said that there is a cluster in every 25 kilometres in the state.
Mr Deepak Jain, State Convener, Advisory council for Economic Affairs, BJP, Haryana said that local artisans should be involved in local industries and in each industrial estate there should be Industrial Training Institutes. He further added that local youth should be skilled as per local industry needs.”
Mr Darpan Kapoor, Chairman CII Chandigarh Council & Vice Chairman, Kapsons Group shared that “CII is very committed to skill development as well as safeguarding the environment. Today’s session primarily dwelt on collaborations on these both aspects. Every year, CII takes a CEOs delegation to Annual Global Negotiations on Climate change to discuss issues, financing options, technology transfers and protect environment from degrading. The Indo-UK Clean Energy Forum is proposed to be a group of Indian industry representatives who are interested in engaging with the UK on Indo-UK collaboration on energy and power sector themes. This engagement can include collaboration between policy makers, businesses, researchers, think tanks and others. CII would act as the Official Secretariat of this Forum.
