After four days in Delhi, the capital of India, the Focus India delegation has now safely arrived in Bangalore. For each destination of the on-site seminar thoughts, comments and experiences will be shared on the webpage. Read more about the delegation’s experiences and newly acquired insights in Delhi.
India is home to more than 1.3 billion people, of which 800 million are under the age of 25 years, leading to the world’s largest youth population. Consequently, the Indian economy will be heavily challenged as an estimated 460 million of young skilled people are needed in India within the next seven years. At the visit to the Embassy of Switzerland in Delhi, the delegation was given the opportunity to listen to two Indian guest speakers trying to cope with these exact challenges, Dr. Neeta Pradhan PhD, Director of Skill Development Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Dr. Divya Nambhiar, Senior Consultant Policy at the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
In India skills are seen to empower youth, helping them to fulfil their dreams and as a potential way to move out of poverty. However large differences exist, which Dr. Nambhiar explained as the following gaps: the skills gap, the aspiration gap and the information gap.
Both speakers were extremely impressed by the Swiss VET system while highlighting the challenges an implementation in India would face. They explained how stakeholders need to change their focus towards practice-oriented apprenticeships that allow young employees more options for their careers. Dr. Pradhan emphasized the importance of collaboration between the stakeholders in order for these efforts to be fruitful.
Dr. Nambhiar has raised multiple questions towards the delegates, who have gone through the Swiss VET system. How can the system be implemented given the Indian complexity? How can companies be convinced to invest in skills training? How can an industry cluster such as the one in Pune be used for VET? Finally, she asked the delegates to observe and reflect on these questions during the next two weeks of the on-site seminar.
In order to properly discuss and reflect upon, the delegation was provided with the necessary context knowledge for these issues by the Deputy Head of Mission, Mr. Gilles Roduit and Mr. Indraneel Ghose, Senior Thematic Advisor for Research, Education and Innovation at the Embassy of Switzerland in Delhi. They gave a thorough introduction into the operations of one of the largest Swiss embassies worldwide. The mission in Delhi is one of five Swiss representations in India, along with General Consulates in Mumbai and Bangalore as well as Honorary Consulates in Calcutta and Chennai. Every year, the Embassy issues 110’000 visas, making it the largest Swiss visa center.
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Company visit at the Swiss Embassy
Culture and personal contact can not just be transmitted by words – it takes action to do this in a proper way. The Focus India delegation could experience exactly this during their time with Blaser Swisslube India. At the company visit on Friday evening, 18 March 2016, Blaser Swisslube was presented as a Swiss company putting strong focus on profound family values while still having a professional leadership put in place. These values were truly felt by the Focus India delegation. Mr. Punit Gupta, Managing Director of Blaser Swisslube India revealed the surprise program to the delegation upon their visit at Blaser’s offices in Gurgaon, just outside Delhi.
The Holi, an ancient Hindu religious festival, celebrates the beginning of spring and is all about sharing love, forgiveness and a new beginning. Lord Krishna, a Hindu god, would smear the villagers’ faces with colors and drench them in water. At Blaser Swisslube in India, the Holi Festival is celebrated every year with all the employees and their families. This year, the Focus India delegation had the great opportunity to be invited to this celebration.
The Saturday was truly magical. As soon as everybody got their traditional Indian clothing, a white Kurta and Pajama, on, the game began: First a bit cautious, the Blaser and Focus India participants quickly lost any shyness and chased and coloured each other with dry powder. As if this had not been enough, water balloons and water guns were added to the game. The highlight of the spectacle was a huge waterspout fountain where everybody danced around, sang and partied together. The festival was rounded off with delicious Holi delicacies, food and drinks.
At this point we would like to thank Mr. Punit Gupta as well as his Blaser Swisslube India family for this unforgettable adventure with the most welcoming Indian families which gave the delegates a deep insight into the Indian culture.
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Company visit and Holi Festival with Blaser Swisslube
[separator style_type=»single» top_margin=»40px» bottom_margin=»» sep_color=»#ffffff» border_size=»» icon=»» icon_circle=»» icon_circle_color=»» width=»» alignment=»center» class=»» id=»»][title size=»3″ content_align=»left» style_type=»default» sep_color=»» margin_top=»10px» margin_bottom=»20x» class=»» id=»»]Kohinoor Foods – largest basmati rice producer in Asia[/title][separator style_type=»single» top_margin=»15px» bottom_margin=»» sep_color=»#ffffff» border_size=»» icon=»» icon_circle=»» icon_circle_color=»» width=»» alignment=»center» class=»» id=»»]
The distributor of Kohinoor products in Switzerland, our silver partner Aggarwal AG has arranged an extraordinary visit to the main rice plant of Kohinoor Foods Limited, the largest basmati rice producer in Asia. With more than 25,000 hectares the factory in Murthal, around 50 km outside of Delhi, is one of the largest production facilities in entire India.
The company, founded in 1978 by the three Arora brothers, produces around 300,000 tons of rice every year for the local market in India while simultaneously exporting to more than 60 countries in the world. By defining the following five important values, Kohinoor has become a world class brand. Premium packaging, consistent quality, large availability, and affordability as well as ensuring taste quality by storing the basmati rice for more than one year are the crucial factors for Kohinoor.
The delegates have learned a lot of new facts not only about the company, but also about the rice market in India. Rice production companies do not have their own rice fields but they are legally required to buy the rice from the farmers through an intermediary institution, a so-called Mundi. There, many farmers come together and as an entity negotiate the rice prices with the brokers of the large rice production firms. One of many advantages of the Mundi is a protectionism towards individual farmers who can only produce limited amounts.
Kohinoor Foods was the pioneer in putting strong focus on high-quality rice production instead of low pricing back when the company was founded. At the same time, they revolutionized the Indian rice market by selling rice in small packages of one or five kilos. As a result, high quality rice was made available for a wider range of income classes as it used to be Indian custom that a family would buy their rice demand for an entire year.
The delegates could feel that innovation still is a strong company value, which is proven by the wide range of products Kohinoor offers such as the recently launched organic product line.
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Company visit at Kohinoor Foods
The next post about the visits in Bangalore will be published soon. Meanwhile you can keep yourself informed with the daily focus member post on the Focus India facebook page.