Bhubaneswar: With the objective of adding new dimensions in skilling and employability for the youth of Odisha, the Government of Odisha in Skill Development & Technical Education (SD&TE) Department has signed a Memorandum of Understanding and two agreements with Tata Strive and Tech Mahindra today at Kharavela Bhawan.
The MoU and agreements were signed in the august presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The first agreement was signed between Directorate of Technical Education & Training (DTE&T) and Tata Strive to impart Life Skills to the students of Government ITIs. This will help the students to sharpen their Soft Skills to make them ready for employment in the industries as well as to compete for global placements. The agreement was signed by Reghu G, IAS, Director, DTE&T and Anita Rajan, CEO,Tata Strive. As per the agreement, Life Skill will be imparted to the students of all the 49 Government ITIs of the state.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed among Tech Mahindra and Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT), Odisha and College of Engineering & Technology (CET), Bhubaneswar, the leading engineering college of the State, to set up a Centre of Excellence in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), where students will get an opportunity to work on proof of concept (PoC) on real life business problems to keep up with the market demand and to enhance the employability of our engineering students. Every year 30 students will get training in the said CoE in the field of AI / ML for a period of 12 months.
This initiative will help in creating and enhancing the talent pool in the field of AI/ML. This is the first ever CoE in AI space in a Government Engineering College in the state by an industry. The MoU was signed by B.K. Mishra, SVP (Global Delivery Head), Tech Mahindra, Prof. P.K. Patra, Principal, CET and H.S. Behera, OAS, Registrar, BPUT.
The third agreement was signed between IDCO and Tech Mahindra to setup a state-of-the-art facility to start its operations for International BPO for the Fortune-500 Global customers to be serviced from Fortune Tower, Bhubaneswar. This facility will provide additional employment in the BPO sector for the state which will help the Skilled-in-Odisha youth seeking an opportunity in International BPO sector. The agreement was signed by Pratap Pattnaik, Manager Corporate Services, Tech Mahindra and Rabindra Jha, CGM (P&C), IDCO.
From Tech Mahindra side Sujit Bakshi (President Corporate Affairs), B K Mishra. (SVP, Global Delivery Head), Mukund Kannan (Global Head Al & Automation) along with other local leaders from their Bhubaneswar centerjoined the event, On this occasion Chairman, Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA), Subroto Bagchi said that “we are extremely delighted with the quality of partners who are now coming forward to work in Odisha. Tata Strive and Tech Mahindra share our philosophy that skills must lead to human transformation. We welcome them to our state.”
Expressing his pleasure Premananda Nayak, Minister, SD&TE said “we invite more such industries to collaborate with us in this journey of New Dimension to Skilling &Employability”
Sanjay Kumar Singh, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, SD&TE Department said, “This unique collaboration between Tech Mahindra and CET will be a big step forward in building joint capabilities for the local industries and the state of Odisha, in the area of Artificial Intelligence. The CoE will be a catalyst in implementing new age technologies in various sectors and will help us design cutting edge solutions for the future. He congratulated Tech Mahindra for setting up an International BPO in the State which shall be a trend setter for other leading industries to follow. Mr Singh appreciated Tata STRIVE for partnering with DTET to impart Life Skills training that will help our ITI students to be potentially employable in today’s competitive world”.
During the ceremony, Minister Industry Dibya Shankar Mishra, Minister E&IT Tusharkanti Behera, Chief Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy, IAS, APC P.K. Mahapatra, IAS, Secretaries of different Departments, Senior Officials and Director, Employment-cum- CEO.OSDA Rashmita Panda were present.