High attrition haunts manufacturing too

The manufacturing sector in India is growing almost at the same rate as IT. The attrition rate too in this sector is very high and is a major challenge to its growth. Pointing this out, T Parabrahman, managing director and chief operating officer of Kirloskar Toyota Textile Machinery, said that an acute shortage of manpower had hit every industrial segment in the country and the manufacturing sector was no exception to this.

He said though the manufacturing and service sectors are growing multi-fold, there is a severe shortage of human capabilities in India. "Though many companies like Toyota are running in-house training centres for new recruits and as part of the continuing education programme, we need universities and educational institutions to start training centres in association with industry to address the paucity of trained manpower," he said.

Citing a case, he said in the next seven years the country needs about 5 million lakh truck drivers.

Martin Voglsanger, Managing Director of Bosch Rexroth-India, who inaugurated the train-the-trainer programme, said Bosch Rexroth had designed proprietary didactic concepts that can be implemented in engineering colleges.

"With modern equipment and teachware, learning at a high level is possible now," he said. Wolfgang Wagner, former managing director of Bosch Rexroth-India, said the design, development and launch of Nano by the Tatas has proved that a high degree of innovation is setting in, in the Indian manufacturing sector. It is heartening to know that more and more Indian firms are participating in industry-academia partnership.

G L Shekar, chairman of the Implementation Committee of the Centre of Competence, said the Indian Automotive Mission Plan had predicted an output of $145 billion in the automobile sector with the creation of an additional 25 million jobs by 2016 in India.