The Hindu Business Line : Call to focus on vocational training, not reservation

INSTEAD of insisting on reservations in the private sector, the country should focus on preparing the workforce, including those from the marginalised sections, to tap the unfolding business and employment opportunities, sections of the corporate sector say.

Mr Swaminathan Mani, Director of Technical Alliance Consulting, preferred the alliance approach as a practical step rather than individual companies going about it on their own.

Referring to the issue of reservations in the private sector at the `Linking Livelihoods' seminar on Thursday,he said, "Guidance could always be given and discrimination, if any, addressed."

The panellists in the discussion organised by the Dr Reddy's Foundation opined that reservations in the corporate sector would not work because surviving in the global market required world-class standards. So rather than giving reservations, workforce should be geared to face the challenges.

Mr Satish Reddy, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, called for a paradigm shift from conventional education to vocational training.

Mr Kedarnath Udiyavar, Head of Polaris Software Lab Limited (Hyderabad), said it would be disastrous to insist on reservations in the sector. It is retrograde. The country should focus on workforce preparedness rather than frittering away its energies on imposing reservations.

The IT and ITES sectors needed 1.4 million top-notch additional workforce to support a $50-billion opportunity in the next five years, said Mr Kedarnath, who is also the President of Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (HYSEA).

For Mr K. Srinivas, Chief Executive Officer of AirTel (Andhra Pradesh), women had great scope in the service industry. "In the service sector, women by nature tend to excel," he observed.

Despite the absence of any law, the company made a conscious move to employ more than nearly meeting the proposed 33 per cent reservations norm.

In fact, it is a win-win situation. "They ensure good synergy," he said. When companies branched out into the hinterland, it would make sense to employ local people. "We can help them meet the requirements," he said.

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