A car-manufacturing plant owned by Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd at Hansalpur has absorbed 24 per cent of the first batch of 254 students from the country's only Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing (JIM) at Mehsana in north Gujarat. The plant in Gujarat will require 4000 more employees as it looks to expand at the same location in Ahmedabad district by commissioning two more assembly lines by early 2020.
A product born out of an agreement between the governments of Japan and India to create a pool of 30,000 skilled manpower for the manufacturing sector in India, the JIM Mehsana was set up by Maruti Suzuki as the AS Patel (Pvt) ITI (Industrial Training Institute) at Ganpat University in Gujarat. A certificate ceremony for the first bench of JIM was organised where the students who joined the course after passing their 10th standard examination were awarded with “Certificate of Course Completion” for skills in Japanese Manufacturing and Processes.
Kenich Ayukawa, MD and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd who was present along with Ryoji Noda, Consul-General of Japan in Mumbai at a launch event, said, “Blessed by the Prime Ministers of India and Japan, JIM of Mehsana is a step to equip youngsters in Gujarat with skills that are directly connected with the growing manufacturing industry. My young friends, you are privileged to be the first batch of students a prestigious initiative to two Prime Ministers. You are the pride of this initiative and have the responsibility to fulfil the expectations of the two Prime Ministers for Skilled India.”
205 students from the 254 have already been placed in different automotive firms in the state. The students have been offered monthly pay-packages that range between Rs 10,000-13,000. Of the 205 placed so far, 61 has been absorbed by Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd at Hansalpur which has an employee workforce of 2000 at the first assembly line that is running almost full capacity at 2.5 lakh units per annum. The others have been absorbed in auto-ancillaries like Motherson Automotive Technologies & Engineering (Sanand), Brakes India Ltd (Jhagadiya), Nanda Automobiles (Gandhinagar) and Starline Cars (Mehsana).
Ayukawa added, “About 60 per cent of the batch have either been absorbed by us or our affiliates or business partners. We will be completing 100 per cent placement of the first batch by the end of this month.”
