Tirupati to become soul of AP growth

The temple town of Tirupati is all set for a giant leap to emerge as the educational and industrial hub of Andhra Pradesh with the onset of Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Science and Education Research.

Tirupati (Chittoor-Nellore hub in the larger sense) is all set to undergo metamorphosis into a knowledge-cum-employment hub unleashing its potential in education, religion and tourism.

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone for IIT and IISER, IIIT) at Sri City all in the vicinity of Tirupati. A few days later, Naidu inaugurated PepsiCo’s largest plant in India, inaugurated 11 new units and laid stones for an equal number, again at Sri City which is already home to popular global addresses like Kobelco, Cadbury’s, Isuzu, Lavazza, Kellogg’s, Hero Motors etc.

The developments in the higher education and the industrial zone cannot remain insulated and will cast shadow on the other and thus narrowing the gap between the academia and industry. In other words the industry is urged to shape the students as per its requirements. It will in management parlance, serve as the ‘forward and backward linkage’.

For example, the resource pool of industrialists, managers and technocrats will be readily available for the institutes as ‘guest faculty’, while the plants meet the ‘industry visit’ obligations of the latter. On the other hand, students have ample placement opportunities right in their backyard and a peek at the portfolio of companies will help them get the skill sets required to land a plum job.

Such a linkage of prestigious institutes and industrial biggies is not always possible, but Tirupati, having bagged such a ‘win win combination’, is all set to be the most sought after education- industry-pilgrim tourism- medicare and business destination in Asia.