“Best way to achieve inclusive growth in the country is through effective Knowledge Management” said Mr. Sanjiv Goenka

“A strong Education System is the fundamental enabler for the development of a Knowledge Economy”- Says India Inc. at the Knowledge 2009 Summit

New Delhi,8th October, 2009: The plenary session 5, moderated by noted journalist Mr. Govindraj Ethiraj, Editor-in-Chief, Bloomberg UTV saw participation of Prof Samir K Barua, Director IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. Ellis Rubinstein, President & CEO, New York Academy of Sciences and Mr. Shiv Nadar, Founder HCL, Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer, HCL Technologies. All the eminent speakers discussed the imperatives of a strong education system which will facilitate the development of a Knowledge Economy. They also emphasized the need for well-educated and skilled manpower for creating, sharing, disseminating and using knowledge effectively.

Mr. Sudhir Jalan, Co-Chairman, Rieter India Pvt Ltd in his welcome address said, “India is a country which has a huge resource base of well educated and knowledgeable individuals which if not harnessed properly will lead to a disruption of economic growth. The Government should work in tandem with industry, to develop an integrated approach towards development and upgradation of human capital in order to serve different business sectors.”

Prof Samir K Barua, Director IIM Ahmedabad stressed upon the need to strengthen the vocational educational system, bring uniformity of policy across the country and to strengthen our ecosystem for translation of knowledge towards socio and economic benefit.

Mr. Shiv Nadar, Founder HCL, Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer, HCL Technologies said that education was expected to create responsible and learned citizens and India needed to develop an institutional framework to build excellence within the education system and develop an extensive network of educational and training institutions to meet the country’s growing skill needs. He also stressed the need to establish an autonomous body which will try and upgrade the skills of faculties of both primary and higher institutes across the country and strengthen the role of technology in the education sector by organizing regular workshops in order to bridge the student faculty gap.

In the plenary session 6 which focused on the theme Global Knowledge Society: For a Better Tomorrow, the speakers included Dr M K Bhan Secretary Department of Biotechnology & Prof B Balaram Director Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Dr Bhan stressed on Innovation, specifically on creating & expanding capacity within middle management. Opportunities are tremendous in Extreme Innovation performance and so are the pressures. Social Importance should be given greater emphasis than the prevalent business models. He also advised that knowledge pools should be linked to the needs of the society by creating a framework of a good ecosystem. Balanced development of R & D in Public & Private sector is essential for Innovation.

Prof B Balaram spoke on Research & Higher Education and Indian Challenges. Indian Institutes were not innovative enough and ranked lower according to global standards, as Indian Higher Education was very fragmented and needed more integration. Ideas needed to be translated into development. Professor Balaram referred to Pasteurs Quadrant based on fundamental research and advised the need for Indian institutes to move to the right hand top quadrant using research and training in the knowledge ecosystem. Evaluation of our institutes should be on the academic performance and creation of Knowledge should be again in our universities for societal transformation.

The Knowledge 2009 organized by All India Management Association(AIMA) in New Delhi was based on the theme Enabling Knowledge Based Economic Growth .The summit saw the participation of over 200 professionals from senior management across industry.