New policy on skill development by end of this fiscal

Top Stories

»	49% Indian startups now from tier 2, 3 cities: Jitendra Singh
»	'India ranks 3rd in global startup ecosystem & number of unicorns'
»	Tripura exported over 9K tonnes of pineapples in 2 years
»	CPI inflation eases to 6.71% in July, IIP falls to 12.3%
»	Rupee depreciates 12 paise to close at 79.64 against US dollar

SME Times News Bureau | 07 Oct, 2014
The government is well into the process of revising the National Policy on Skill Development, 2009, which will be ready by the end of the current financial year, a top official said Tuesday.

"There are instructions that the policy should be ready by the end of the current fiscal, by March 31 next year," Sunil Arora, secretary in the recently-created ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship, told reporters on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-organised conference here on skill development.

"Comments are being obtained from the various ministries. Once these are received, a draft policy will be placed on the website of the ministry to invite comments from the public and other stakeholders," he added.

The existing policy was formulated by the labour ministry in 2009 to impart various skills to 500 million people under a standardised framework and in keeping with international norms, and based on industry demands. It led to the setting up of the National Skill Development Corporation as a public-private-partnership project.

Skill development is a focus area of the National Democratic Alliance government, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in his Independence Day speech announced the "Make in India" campaign inviting companies across the world to make their products in India and create jobs in the labour-intensive manufacturing sectors.

The policy is being revised so that schemes of different ministries and portions of the Rs.10,000 crore earmarked to encourage entrepreneurship are routed through the newly-formed skill development and entrepreneurship ministry.

Moreover, the new policy aims to ensure that the country's youth also fulfil the skilled manpower demand abroad, by benchmarking the training programmes to international standards.

The new ministry is considering branding the programme through the Rural India Skills Emblem in the manner of the Bureau of Indian Standards certification, which will hallmark the skilled workers from India in a way that is recognized globally.