JBM forays into education biz

NEW DELHI: At a time when the country's auto makers are trying different ways to beat the slowdown blues, components maker JBM Group is venturing into the educational sector to meet the growing demand for auto designers and engineers.

The Rs 2,700-crore group will start technical education programmes in association with five other institutes in the national capital region to train automotive designers and engineers.

The company is aiming to garner Rs 1,000 crore from the new venture by 2015 and expand to at least 100 institutes across the country over the next five years.

"The automotive and engineering industry requires about 10,000 designers, while the current availability is only about 1,000," said JBM Group executive director Nishant Arya.

"To start with, we are targeting to training 2,000 students in this fiscal," he added.