Skilled manpower need of the hour, says CII

A skilled workforce is an urgent requirement of Indian industry at present and Uttar Pradesh has the potential to provide it, said Adesh Gupta, chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (Northern Region) at a forum on "Leveraging Resources for Competitive Growth" organised by the CII in Lucknow.

"There is not enough manpower available for industry at present while skilled workforce is need of the hour. Therefore it is very important to have the right people at the right place at the right time," said Amir Ullah Khan, Fellow, India Development Foundation, while speaking on the occasion.

KC Girotra, chairman, CII UP State Council, said the CII forum was aimed at highlighting the areas and resources that had tremendous potential and could become the drivers of the state economy in the near future.

The objective was to outline an economic agenda for Uttar Pradesh to sustain the growth trajectory the state has recently acquired.

Sunit Sachar, COO (Uttar Pradesh) and Head (Publicity), Parsvnath Developers Pvt Ltd. put across his concern for the growth of infrastructure.

He said that urbanization was an essential link for the growth in the state and to help improve that the infrastructure set-up needs to be improved.

"Uttar Pradesh led other states in the country as far as natural resources were concerned and hence they should be exploited fully," added Sachar.

"Branding of major cities in Uttar Pradesh is a very important step that needs to be taken urgently," said Atul Chandra, resident editor, The Times of India (Lucknow) and added that infrastructure had a wide scope in the state.

The forum was well-attended by over 130 delegates from the government, industries, corporates and institutes from areas in and around Uttar Pradesh.