IBM to join hands with educational institutes

With the services sector constituting around 53 per cent of the country's GDP and growing rapidly, IT services major IBM India is set to join hands with various educational institutes in the country to create a 'Services Innovation Cell' and enable students to create a repository of knowledge base pertaining to innovation in the services sector.

In Gujarat, the company had flagged off the initiative at the Nirma Institute of Management where it has created a services innovation cell in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The centre is expected to take up challenging issues in the services sector and also develop case studies and solutions in the sector.

"We plan to work with the students on numerous topics such as social entrepreneurship and innovative solutions in the telecom, pharma, retail, IT and ITeS sectors," said Dravida Seetharaman, vice-president (government programme), IBM India.

The company is also planning to set up similar innovation cells in institutes such as the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi, and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Chirag Mehta, convener, CII-Gujarat ICT panel, said it was high time that innovation be taken out of the exclusive domain of the manufacturing sector and services be included as well. The centre would see students involved in solving problems in the services sector through a virtual platform and lay the foundation for the growth of an emerging science called 'Services Science Management and Engineering'.