Indo German Training In Partnership At IMI, New Delhi

Bilateral training Programme for Indian Entrepreneurs and Managers

The first leg of the first Manager Training Program, a training partnership venture between German and Indian Governments facilitated by InWent of Germany, coordinated by CII and FICCI and delivered by and at International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi kick started today, the 1st September 2009. The participants included 17 entrepreneurs, presidents, Vice Presidents and General Managers of 17 SMEs from all over the country.

Addressing the inaugural session The German Ambassador to Indian, His Excellency Mr Christian-Mathias Schlaga, said that “this training should be seen in the larger context of the need for developing global leaders in business and referred to other initiatives that the German Government is taking in conducting 18 months vocational graduate programs being offered in cooperation with Indo German businesses at Pune, Mumbai, and Chennai”.

Mr. Gopal Krishna Joint Secretary, DIPP, Government of India said that “this should be seen as a unique opportunity to learn from each other and strengthen the business and trade relations between the two countries”.

Both India and Germany recognize the significant role of small and medium enterprises in furthering the trade, investment and technology links and agree to facilitate the linkage between the two countries.

To second this, on 9th Sept 2008 a Joint declaration was signed between Ministry of Commerce & Industry Government of India and Federal Republic of Germany, where they expressed their common aspiration to foster economic cooperation between the two countries by implementing a bilateral training programme for Indian entrepreneurs and managers in the SME sector. The Government of India approached Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to identify 20 persons who could be deputed for training. Both the chambers in turn requested International Management Institute, New Delhi to conduct the program.

It took less than a year for signing the MOU between the two countries to selecting participants from both the apex chambers to the execution of the project. Both Mr. Gopal Krishna Joint secretary, Department of Industrial Policy Promotion, Government of India and Mr Christian Mathias Schlaga, Charge d’affaires, Germany Embassy agreed that this by any standards of international collaborations of this kind involving bureaucracies in two countries is a record in itself.

“We need to learn a lot from Germans in terms of time sense and engineering excellence” said Dr C S Venkata Ratnam, Director, IMI, New Delhi while welcoming the distinguished gathering. Dr Indrani Kar, Senior Director, CII and Mr Rajan Kohli, Deputy Secretary General, FICCI said that India needs to go on a war footing in terms of building skills at all levels to ensure that the demographic dividend that it has does not become a demographic liability.

Mr Michael Emmrich, Senior Project Manager, InWent – Capacity Building International explained that the program is being offered in two stages – the first stage at IMI Delhi for 11 days from 1 September and the second stage for three weeks in Germany during October.

Proposing vote of thanks, Dr Sonu Goyal, Professor, IMI, New Delhi expressed the hope that the participants will learn the best practices in Germany and work on next practices here in India.