9th Shri Ram Sahai Memorial Lecture on“Bridging Skill Gap through Industry Academia Partnership” on June 25, 2022.

Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) J&K Regional Branch organized 9th Shri Ram Sahai Memorial Lecture on“Bridging Skill Gap through Industry Academia Partnership” on June 25, 2022. “We are on borrowed time and it is time for all of us to buck up and change our attitude towards education, skilling, industrial growth and employment” said Prof. (Dr.) NeharikaVohra,Vice-Chancellor Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University, New Delhi while delivering 9th Shri Ram Sahai Memorial Lecture. While raising concerns about the quality of human capital, skill deficit, and unemployable graduates, Prof Vohra strongly advocated that both academia and industry cannot be complacent anymore, and should synergize their efforts and come forward to handle the issue of talent depth in the country. According to her, the education sector should rethink and design an effective curriculum through intensive collaboration with the industry to define required skills at a detailed level. Further there is a need to develop indicators to measure levels of core employability skills, create, adapt and develop new assessment methods that reflect the core work skills and competences of learners. Further highlighting the role of the industry in reducing the skill deficit, she said that industry should be willing to come into the classroom, engage with the students, provide internship opportunities, co-create curriculum which is of relevance to them. According to her, industry should pay a premium for skill and therefore appropriate incentives for skilling and learning should be visible. Industry needs to move away from lazy categorizations of talent and recognize the skilled workforce. Dr. Ashok Bhan, IPS (Retd), Patron of IIPA-JKRB while remembering the contributions of Late Sh. Ram Sahai said he was a charismatic & seasoned entrepreneur who was way ahead of times and contributed towards issues of social relevance. He said that educated unemployment is a matter of serious concern and suggested that suitable interventions should be made by both academia and industry to handle this issue which affects the youth of the country. Sh. B R Sharma, IAS (Retd), Chairman of IIPA-JKRB in his presidential remarks while paying homage to Sh. Sahai, said that the vision of India becoming a 5-trillion dollar economy is only possible with the synergistic and systematic effort of policy makers, educational institutions and industry. He said that the skill landscape of our country is immense and through intelligence forecasting and modelling, the vision can be realized. Sh. K B Jandial, IAS (Retd.), Director (Seminars), IIPA JKRB paid glowing tributes to Late Sh. Ram Sahai. He said that as a founding member of the branch, Sh. Sahai has made immense contributions towards bringing the issues of trade and commerce to the forefront and this memorial lecture is organized every year to carry forward his legacy by deliberating on issues of relevance to the industry. Sh. Rahul Sahai in his concluding remarks said that in a constantly changing world, inculcating steadily experiential learning is key to develop human capital of the future. He assured that, as a member of industrial association, he will forge fruitful relationship with academia and provide meaningful opportunities to the students which will benefit the local industry and society at large. He acknowledged IIPA for organizing this memorial lecture in memory of his father every year. Earlier Prof. Alka Sharma, Secretary, IIPA JKRB delivered the formal welcome address and the proceedings were conducted by Dr. Anil Gupta, Joint Secretary. The progamme was attended by over 100 eminent citizens, members of IIPA, family members of Late Sh. Ram Sahai including Dr. S D Singh, IPS, ADGP, Prof, Manoj Dhar, Prof NeeluRohmetra, ShSandeep Mittal GM RBI J&K , ShSanjeev Kr Garg Airport Director Jammu , ShArun Gupta President CCI Jammu , Sh Rajesh Jain Chairman Federation of Industries Jammu , Sh. LalitMahajanChiarman BBIA , Sh Sanjay Bansal Chairman Federation of All India Vyaparmandal, ShSatishKaul, President Pharma industries of J&K and others.