In a step to revamp the technical education system, the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) in collaboration with the Silicon Institute of Technology (SIT), Sambalpur organised an industry-academic integration programme on Friday.Inaugurating the workshop through video-conferecing from Bhubaneswar, Chief Secretary GC Pati applauded the BPUT authorities for taking initiative to connect academic learning with practical industrial activities.He said the gap between the education and skill required by industries can be weeded out through such seminars. He said it is high time, the industries needed to invest more on strategic research and development. He assured all cooperation from the Government to organise such programmes.
Reliance Retail HR president Bijay Sahoo said, “We are still lagging behind in the technology sector. When we are yet to enter to 4G version, the Korea is planning for 5G. So to compete with world phenomena, we must plan to develop skills of the students from campus stage.”
He said while 14 million Indians engaged in abroad are earning 70 billion dollars as remittance, Keralis lead with 15 billion dollars and Odisha position in this respect is very low.It is only because we are more focusing on education than developing skills, he saidHe also said the future belongs to India because after 20 years there would be a requirement of 540 million workers to which India would contribute 450 million.
BPUT VC Shyam Sundar Pattnaik gave the introductory speech and RSP ED MK Das and SIT Chairman NG Dhal spoke in the inaugural session. The four-phase technical session went on for the whole day.