Posts in category: Business

Introducing a formal definition of skill development, integrating soft skills in each training programme and tracking of all candidates enrolled in such schemes through their Aadhaar number are some of the key recommendations of a high-powered panel set up to rationalise the multitude of skilling schemes run by the government.

The Modi government is set to launch a new skill development policy by March 2015 that would bridge..

The Modi government is set to launch a new skill development policy by March 2015 that would bridge the gap between educational institutions and the labour market, minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship Sarbananda Sonowal said here on Wednesday.

Four lakh ITI students will get an SMS from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday cheering their choice of picking up vocational education as a sign the government is serious this time to correct the basic problem of lack of trained manpower to drive its ‘Make in India’ ambition.

Underlining skill development and improving employability of labour as his key priorities, newly appointed minister of state (independent charge) for labour Bandaru Dattatreya said that he will especially focus on the unorganised sector workers. In an interview with Surabhi, Dattatreya, who is the country’s fifth labour minister in a span of less than two years also defended the government’s recent slew of labour reforms and said the policies are not anti-labour.

Aviation secretary Ashok Lavasa has been transferred to the environment ministry as the new secretary, while V. Somasundaran will be the new aviation secretary, the government said in a statement on Thursday. Lavasa took charge of aviation in 2013. Somasundaran is currently additional chief secretary Kerala.

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday announced a set of secretary-level appointments, selecting 1979-batch Kerala cadre IAS officer V Somasundaran as the new aviation secretary and transferred current aviation secretary Ashok Lavasa to the environment ministry.

Former Indian Airlines chairman and managing director Sunil Arora, an IAS from Rajasthan cadre has meanwhile been appointed as secretary in the newly created Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship under ministry of skill development, entrepreneurship, youth affairs and Sports.

India stands at the cusp of a demographic dividend, and several people have expressed the urgent need to leverage this dividend to enable jumps in GDP growth. The formation of the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) signalled the high priority attached to skill development. The NSDM created three distinct structures, namely, the Prime Minister’s National Council on Skill Development, the Skill Development Coordination Board at the Planning Commission and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). The first two were subsequently shelved and replaced by the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA). The NSDC, however, was retained as an entity under the NSDM. Now, the NDA government has brought all skill development initiatives under one umbrella ministry, probably motivated by various governance and management issues.

Under the Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) Scheme GVT has been awarded a project by the Rajasthan Skill Livelihood Development Corporation, RSLDC to provide skill development training to 20,000 candidates in Construction and Information & Communication Technology, ICT trade. This is a placement linked skill development training whereby GVT will provide training to the candidates and will also ensure their placement with different organizations. GVT has already signed MoUs with several organizations to place those candidates who will successfully complete their trainings at its institutes in Rajasthan.

With his twin focus on jobs and growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems intent on placing renewed emphasis on skill development in the services and manufacturing sectors. In his Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister spoke of his ‘skilled India’ mission to promote holistic development. There is no doubt that India needs to equip its youth with greater work skills. At present, the country churns out a mostly semi-literate workforce without the requisite marketable skills in a globalised world.

In order to achieve the government’s skill development goal, policy makers would need to recognise the structural strengthening of ecosystem by introducing enabling policies such as – Minimum Wages Act, Labor Laws, and Apprenticeship Act apart from providing required support to key stakeholders like NSDC, SSCs, State Skill Missions, Training Providers and others, according to a FICCI-KPMG white paper launched in New Delhi, on September 4, 2014.