Post-Covid recovery can be management case study, says finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Post-Covid recovery can be management case study, says finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman

MUMBAI: The five-pronged strategy that helped the country to recover swiftly from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic despite the challenges could be a case study for management students, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Saturday at the inauguration of BITS Pilani’s Rs 1,500 crore Mumbai campus near Kalyan.

Outlining the five pillars of govt strategy, Sitharaman said the primary one was the use of IT and digital public infrastructure to increase transparency and eliminate corruption. Second was the adoption of “systems thinking” where govt is treated as one organisation, fostering collaboration, and focusing on relationships between parts without working in silos.

The third pillar, Sitharaman said, was the grievance redressal framework followed by performance-based budgeting using the output-outcome measurement dashboard for every rupee spent by govt. The fifth pillar was to adopt a strategy of kaizen or continuous improvement, in addition to transformational change in some areas.

Sitharaman, who took the local train to reach the venue, highlighted govt’s emphasis on education over the past decade. “One new IIT/IIM is opened every year. Every week, one new university is built in India. Every third day, one Atal Tinkering lab is opened. Every second day, one new college is being constructed. Every day, one new ITI is formed. Around 1.4 crore youths have been trained under the Skill India Mission,” said Sitharaman.

Govt has been actively pursuing Mutual Recognition of Academic Qualifications framework with various countries to enable our students to benefit through MoUs, she said, adding: “We have signed several bilateral MoUs and agreements with countries including France, Australia, and UAE in the recent past, and many other countries are in the negotiation process.”

According to Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chancellor of BITS Pilani, the institute has 18,000 students enrolled while it has reskilled 40,000 professionals. As many as 6,300 startups originated from BITSians, with 13 unicorns and two decacorns among them. Today, BITSians hold CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies, totalling 7,400 CEOs who have graduated from the institute.

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