Linking market with innovation will make India self-reliant: Union Minister

Linking the Indian market with innovation and prioritising competency over degrees will make the country self-reliant and a leading economy, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday.

Addressing the annual summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said India is taking great strides in areas of digital capabilities, frontier technologies and innovation.

"In the coming days, we will have to work on a new curriculum to prepare our youth for opportunities in these booming areas. The new National Education Policy (NEP) will be helpful in this area," Pradhan said.

"We will have to link the Indian market with innovation and prioritise competency over degrees, then only we will be able to become self-reliant and a leading economy. We will have to trust more, the strength of our youth and intellectual capabilities of our country and move ahead with new approaches and fundamentals," he added.

The theme of the summit was "Future Frontiers: Competitiveness, Technology, Sustainability, Internationalisation".

"If we combine the Indian market with Indian innovation, we will be able to brand our technology. By investing significantly in research and development and working our best, we can make this possible," the minister said.

"The NEP has given importance to skilling and schooling. Keeping the demands of the world in mind, we have kept skilling and vocational study as our aspiration and will introduce them to young students from class 6 onwards."

Pradhan asserted that the paradigm shift—degree to competence—that "we are striving for in the country will only be possible if the government and the important stakeholders, namely industry, work together".

"India today has become a preferred destination. The single-point reason for it is India's internal market and its competent manpower. Quality education, skill development, capacity building and financial empowerment of a large section of the population should be among the responsibilities of the industry stakeholders," he said.