CII to help in building Brand UP

LUCKNOW: Industry in Uttar Pradesh is all set to get a helping hand from the Confederation of Indian Industry in the current fiscal. Apart from the state government's own initiatives to build Brand UP, even the industry body will offer support to build an industry-friendly environment.

Saying that nearly 86% of CII's membership lies in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), CII northern region chairman and chief executive officer, NIIT, Vijay Thadani, on Monday, said UP has plenty of potential for business and industry. He added that CII would invite member and non-member industrialists to Lucknow for interaction with top state government officials to explore investment options in UP. The first of these events, Thadani said, would be organized in September this year.

Announcing their plan for UP for the remaining fiscal, Thadani said CII would work towards addressing the demand for skilled labour, and announced that UP would be home to one of the four Centres of Excellence for skill development proposed for CII's northern region. These, he added, would be state-run universities opened in partnership with industry and would have them setting up finishing schools for students, providing research opportunities to faculty and assisting in curriculum upgradation.

Apart from encouraging the government to participate in CII road-shows and national events on a regular basis to promote UP's investment opportunities, CII's key focus areas will also include education, environment, employment, employability and entrepreneurship. "Our attempt is to enhance employability of trained youth and bring them at par with industry standards. We propose to take up programmes to boost entrepreneurship in the MSME sector," Thadani said.

CII will also train teachers and trainers at Industrial Training Institutes in 16 districts of UP in the first phase of these operations. Following this initiative, it will also start a skill development programme in association with the British Council and the Aditya Birla Group in Sitapur district, where 1,500 below povert line youth, studying at these it is, are expected to be trained over a period of two years.

Chairman, CII UP State Council, Ved Krishna, said: "We are in talks with the industrial and infrastructure development commissioner and Udyog Bandhu to understand the areas in which CII can partner with the state government. There is a mutual agreement that both the industry and the government need to work towards a better branding of UP to attract better investments."