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Created: 29 April 2020

JAMMU: The Government of Jammu & Kashmir and Tata Technologies Ltd today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up two Centres for Invention, Innovation, Incubation and Training (CIIITs) in Jammu and Kashmir; one each at Government Polytechnic Colleges at Jammu and Baramulla.

The MOU was signed through video conferencing in the presence of Lieutenant Governor, Jammu and Kashmir, Girish Chandra Murmu, by Sh. Navin Kumar Choudhary, Principal Secretary to the Government, Technical Education Department on behalf of Government of Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and Sh. Anand Bhade, President Tata Technologies Ltd.

Sh. Bipul Pathak, Principal Secretary to Lieutenant Governor was also present on the occasion, besides Sh. Sushil Kumar of Tata Technologies attended through video conferencing.

The Lt Governor termed it as a historic opportunity to convert these two Polytechnic Colleges at Baramulla and Jammu as premier skill development institutions with an aim of 100% placement after training in various courses. He further directed that the project be completed in time so that first batch starts training in the institute by July end. He said that a fine example of industry-academia partnership, it would serve as a model, to be replicated elsewhere. “The industry linkage aspect of the outcome based project will offer immense employment potential to the trained technocrats coming out of these centres of excellence”, he maintained.

The Lt Governor also emphasized the need to utilize this opportunity to build the capacity of faculty members and staff of Polytechnic Colleges, as Tata Technologies will train the students at CIIIT for 03 years through ‘Train the Trainers program’. The capacity building will also help converting other Polytechnic Colleges into premier skilled development institutions in next few years, he added.

The centers shall be established at a cost of approximately Rs. 360.00 crores, out of which Rs 300 crores will be contributed by Tata Technologies.

Partnership between the Tata Technologies and each individual Government Polytechnic College (both Jammu and Baramulla) will enable efficient, effective, integrated and sustainable service delivery in the implementation of the CIIIT. The Project is aimed at bringing qualitative improvements in the field of technical education and to create a learning environment for training manpower to cater to the industry requirements in J&K and outside. The centers are expected to create a ready pool of skilled manpower like engineers, technicians etc. which besides augmenting the industrial growth shall help in generating avenues of self employment. The centers shall also provide workshop facilities to the nearby Colleges and MSME’s.

The centers, the first of their kind to be set up in the Union Territory, shall also help in improving the academic and training curriculum in the already established technical institutes in J&K, by studying the courses in light of the requirements of the job markets, within and outside J&K, besides helping innovators to develop new products and promoting technology start-ups. Initially, 18 major courses and several short term courses will be introduced with intake capacity of roughly 1825 students in each of the CIIITs.

The Government will provide the built-up, ready-to-use space for setting up of the CIIITs and the Tata Technologies will provide and arrange industrial hardware, commercial technology tools, equipment and machinery for running the technology solutions in the centers. Tata Technologies shall also look after the maintenance of the machinery and tools, besides offering all possible assistance for placement of the trained candidates.

Elaborating further, Principal Secretary to Government Technical Education Department, Navin K. Choudhary explained that this is a serious attempt by the Department to reorient its focus on promoting skill development to make our youth employable rather than merely acquiring degrees and diplomas. He further informed that in coming days, a series of reforms in the department will be carried out to completely revamp its focus and functioning.