The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the School of Continuing and Lifelong Education at the National University of Singapore (NUS SCALE) have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly create a robust, future-ready manufacturing ecosystem in India, which would subsequently enhance the overall competitiveness in relevant sectors in both India and Singapore.
The MoUs were exchanged in the presence of Minister Ong (second from left) and Mr Tarun Das, Chairman, Institute of Economic Growth, India (third from left) (Photo Credit: Confederation of Indian Industry)
The MoU - which will run till 31 May 2021 - would see CII and NUS SCALE collaborate to assess the proficiency of India's manufacturing sector and pinpoint specific areas of development, then make available and promote the wide array of NUS development programmes to CII's network of over 8,000 member companies and leading Indian Corporates. Both parties would also exchange knowledge and expertise in manufacturing technologies to overcome challenges in the manufacturing sectors of India and Singapore.
The MoU was signed at Growth Net 2019 - where Singapore Minister for Education Mr Ong Ye Kung was a speaker - by Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII and Professor Wei Kwok Kee, Dean of NUS SCALE, in the presence of Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education, Republic of Singapore.
Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII said: "This MoU with NUS SCALE would help India train professionals and students with deep knowledge on Industry 4.0 and prepare them for India Inc. and globally. It is a great value add CII is providing to its members as it gives an opportunity for their manpower to gain access to world-class knowledge on Future Manufacturing techniques. This enrichment of knowledge will improve the overall competitiveness of Indian industries. This collaboration with NUS SCALE will further deepen the strategic and economic partnership that India shares with Singapore. Members of CII and India Inc. are keen to be a part of this initiative."
Prof Wei Kwok Kee, Dean, NUS SCALE said: "We are pleased to partner the CII and play a part in raising the proficiencies of the manufacturing sectors of India and Singapore. As advocates of future-oriented lifelong learning, we too are always on the look-out for the best industrial practices so that we can master them, and adapt them to relevant sectors to equip learners with the appropriate skillsets to remain relevant in the digital economy. We also believe that CII members can benefit from the many programmes that we offer on related areas such as the newly-launched NUS Master of Science (MSc) in Industry 4.0. We look forward to a fruitful collaboration with CII."
Commenting on the collaboration, Mr Ong Ye Kung said, "As we ride a new wave in industrial transformation, countries across the world, including India and Singapore, are looking at ways to prepare their workforce for the future and develop their talent pipeline. Skills development and supporting lifelong learning can be a key area in Singapore and India's collaboration. I am pleased that we are expanding our partnership in this area through the collaboration between NUS SCALE and CII to support the transformation of India's manufacturing sector. I hope that this partnership will support the overall competitiveness development of industries in India and Singapore."
The Industry 4.0 is essentially the fourth industrial revolution brought about by the confluence of technologies involving interconnected devices, explosion of data, and the integration of hardware and software on top of previous industrial and computing advancements. It has ushered the manufacturing sector into a new age that has led to a transformation in business and manufacturing processes, and represents an opportunity to gain new competitive advantage through greater productivity, agility and speed.
That led to NUS SCALE launching the MSc in Industry 4.0 post-graduate degree programme. It is an interdisciplinary course that provides a broad-based view of different technological building blocks, and how they transform organisations, business processes and functional specialisations, tapping on the deep expertise of five academic units at NUS in areas pertinent to the latest industrial revolution - the Faculty of Engineering, the Faculty of Science, the School of Computing, the
School of Continuing and Lifelong Education and the Institute of Systems Science.
