Start-ups need white-collar environment, says Ratan Tata

The start-up sector needs white-collar environment and ease of doing business should be visible, said Tata Group's former Chairman Ratan Tata. "Innovation and the infrastructure for innovation will change the start-up environment in the country," he said at the Make in India Week seminar in Mumbai.

"We need research and innovation centres for promoting the abundant young talent in the country," he said, and added that the education system should be remodelled to encourage innovation, Silicon Valley kind of technology, and an innovation hub should be developed in the state. "We have all the best things here," he noted.

After retiring from the Tata Group in 2012, Ratan Tata has made more than 25 investments in start-ups in the past two years.

While talking about other sectors, he said that agricultural productivity enhancement is as important as manufacturing, infrastructure growth has been slow in the country for the past few years, and the government needs to improve the situation for attracting investments in the state.

Baba Kalyani, Chairman of Bharat Forge, said that Maharashtra is better prepared for the fourth industrial revolution, which the developed world is heading for. "For achieving this goal, we need a policy for skilling the people and a strong government," he added.

"About 65 per cent of the freshers joining various industries don't know what their job is. The present institutions are front loading the students with education, which will be extinct in a decade. We need a skilling corridor," Kalyani added.

Kalyani Strategic Systems has formed a joint venture company with Swedish SAAB Air Defence Systems.