Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Thursday said that educational institutions and start-ups had a key role to play in propelling the State’s economic growth and contributing to its vision of becoming a $1-trillion economy by 2030.

Delivering his keynote address at a symposium on ‘EIs (Educational Institutions) and Start-ups on Tamil Nadu’s Vision of a US $1 Trillion Economy by 2030’ at the Crescent Innovation and Incubation Council (CIIC), he said that the number of Global Capability Centres in the State had gone up by 65% since the DMK came to power. And 99% of this came in without any subsidy, he added.

‘Free of politics’
Mr. Thiaga Rajan further said that educational institutions needed to be free of politics. “There is an old chicken or the egg question that goes — do good institutions build prosperous societies or do prosperous societies build or encourage good institutions? This was not so clear about 10 to 15 years ago. But now, the answer is clear. If you have apolitical, counterbalancing, and well-designed institutions that ensure a level playing field, freedom of expression, and smooth societies without dominance of one section and suppression of another, the more likely you are to have a prosperous society,” he added.

Mr. Thiaga Rajan also unveiled a compendium of products of start-ups at the CIIC, and inaugurated new companies incubated at the council.

The symposium, with the theme ‘Educational Institutions as Engines of Economic Growth’, was organised by the United Economic Forum (UEF) in collaboration with the CIIC.

Ahmed Buhari, president, UEF, spoke on the forum’s vision and mission, stressing the need for entrepreneurship, start-up, innovation, incubation, and accelerator centres in educational institutes.

 

Parvez Alam, executive director, CIIC, detailed the evolution of CIIC since its inception.

Media: The Hindu