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Maharashtra is a productive place for innovation and business: Ralf Heckner
Pune in particular is one of the cities in the state we are looking at for skill development, innovation, investment and digitisation, he said
Ralf Heckner, ambassador of Switzerland to India and Bhutan, said Maharashtra is one of the most productive states for innovation and business and for achieving people-to-people relationships.
“About 60 out of 100 companies, which are investing in Switzerland, are from Maharashtra. Pune in particular is one of the cities in the state we are looking at for skill development, innovation, investment and digitisation,” he said on Wednesday while speaking during a visit to the Skilling Centre for Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) by the city-based Maritime Research Centre (MRC) and a Skilling Centre for Agriculture Technology set up at Indo Swiss Centre of Excellence (ISCE) in Koregaon Bhima.
“There are about 330 Swiss companies in India of which only two or three are run by Swiss nationals, while the rest are run by Indians. This is what India has achieved in the last 75 years. A bilateral relationship should be maintained between Switzerland and India. India can be a strategic partner and can work together with Switzerland for the development of the digital wave,” said Heckner.
Considering the growing importance of the underwater domain in the current global circumstances, MRC had earlier signed an MoU with ISCE to start a skilling centre at the place to create human resources for the future.
Mukesh Malhotra, president, ISCE, said, “We want to impart the skills of tomorrow in the youth of today. We’ll be doing lots of things like mechatronics, 3D Printing, AI, machine learning and underwater studies, here at the centre. The training will be based on the Swiss standard, which is considered the best in the world.”
