French Consul General in Kolkata, Fabrice Etienne, during his visit to the Steel city on Monday said that his country is keen to tie up with Jharkhand universities cross- educational and cultural activities. He said that though the institutions of Jharkhand like XlRI has tied up with French B-schools to promote global education, he will pave way for further links with other Jharkhand universities to foster mutual exchange of art and education.
He said that he is scheduled to meet wit the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary of Jharkhand tomorrow at Ranchi and will take with the matter with him. “Jharkhand with its enriched cultural heritage has a lot to share with other parts of the world. We want to talk on a wide spectrum of issues including potential for business in the state,” he said while interating with the media at Centre for Excellence here. The consul will seek more cultural exchanges with the state.
It may be mentioned here that the leading B-school of France, ESEG (Conférence des Grandes Écoles ) recently 21 MBA students of the XlRI School of Business & Human Resources, Jamshedpur. They visited France for a three-week European Business and Management International Immersion Programme. The French Consul General was on a fact-finding mission to explore opportunities for investment in Jharkhand. He interacted with members of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Jharkhand council, along with its Chairman, S K Behra. After visiting Jharkhand, Etienne said, he would apprise prospective investors in France to encourage them to invest.
He revealed that French investment in India amounts to $18 billion and France was among the top five nations as far as the investment in India is concerned. In his interaction with CII officials, Etienne stressed upon the French industrial presence in Jharkhand and looked for the opportunities to go beyond the steel and auto sector. He told that there were lot of potentials in solar power, nuke power, defence sector as well in agriculture, food processing industries.
He tried to explore the opportunities of French companies in micro, small and medium enterprises. To meet the energy requirements of cities of Jharkhand, he stressed upon establishing solar power plant and supply of solar power on residential housing basis. He also focused upon the potential of Hydroelectricity in the region of Jharkhand.