MUMBAI, Dec 30: Indian companies need to plough a higher percentage of their profits in research and development if they are to remain in the forefront in a patents regime, said Indian prime minister, IK Gujral. Gujral who was speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony for the CII-Naoroji Godrej Centre for Excellence, at Mumbai on Tuesday, said that development of technology was very important for Indian industry as import of technology only gives India the knowhow and not "know-why".Gujral appealed to the Maharashtra government to ensure that the state reaches a 100 per cent level of literacy in the next five years.
He also urged the industry, through the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), to eliminate corruption from top places. He said political donations should not be given through cash but only through cheques.
He praised CII for its role in promoting excellence among the Indian industry. In fact, Gujral went on to say that CII had become an internationally accepted organisation and in
one of the international seminars that he attended as external affairs minister, he got the impression that there were two external affairs ministers from India attending the seminar - one himself and the other CII.
As a part of its centenary year initiative, CII has decided to establish four centres of excellence in Bangalore, Calcutta, Mumbai and Gurgaon near New Delhi with the objective of providing training and human resource development support to Indian industry.
In his address, the Maharashtra chief minister, Manohar Joshi said that the administrators would like to interact with the new centre being set up so that the administrators can become more professional.
The centre will be open to executives in corporates, the top management, trade Union leaders as well as some social scientists.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
