‘The AI Advantage: A strategic playbook for higher education leaders’ being released at the National Higher Education Conclave 2025 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Coimbatore on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: Siva Saravanan S.
The ninth edition of the National Higher Education Conclave organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Coimbatore on Thursday highlighted the need for internationalisation and industrialisation of higher education.B.S. Satyanarayana, Vice-Chancellor of Dayananda Sagar University, said India was a global leader for 90% of the last 2,000 years and it would become a global leader again by the time it completed 100 years of independence.Stating that knowledge lifecycles in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) reduced drastically, he stressed the need for academicians to evolve relentlessly. India needed a multi-disciplinary, immersive and experiential learning system to achieve its goals, he said.R. Nandini, immediate past chairperson of CII-Southern Region SR and Founder Trustee of GRG Trust, underlined that India was poised to provide nearly one-quarter of the world’s incremental workforce by 2030. She said the decade ahead would be defined by AI, electric mobility, semiconductors and green energy. Semiconductors alone would have demand for 1 million skilled professionals by 2030.S. Malarvizhi, past chairwoman, CII-India Women Network Tamil Nadu, and Managing Trustee, Sri Krishna Institutions, said several international universities had already begun setting up their campuses in India. The quality of Indian universities would rise because of the competition, besides making them improve their curriculum to match the level of foreign institutes, she said.Shankar Vanavarayar, past chairman of CII–Tamil Nadu, and president of Kumaraguru Institutions, observed that industries in Coimbatore and other parts achieved international repute decades ago and it could be replicated by higher education institutions. Coimbatore, because of its industrial prowess, was called the Manchester of South India. It had the potential to become the Harvard or Boston of India in the field of academics, he remarked.Rajesh Doraiswamy, Chairman of CII Coimbatore Zone and Joint Managing Director of Salzer Electronics, said India had become a value creator for the world whereas it was seen as a low-cost service resource by developed nations two decades ago.Senthil Ganesh, Chairman of the conclave and Managing Trustee of RVS Group of Institutions, said industrialisation of higher education was not only about skilling the students to be industry-ready, but making them learn management systems from the corporate world. Sujana Abirami, Convenor of the Education Panel of CII Coimbatore and Trustee of Firebird Institute of Research in Management, also spoke. Published - September 11, 2025 08:28 pm IST
