Bangalore: To discuss one of the most important issues at the rural level, BetterPlace, a venture-capital backed rural training enterprise, in collaboration with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, organised an interactive event themed ‘The Journey of Rural Youth’, where approximately 300 industry leaders, from across the country got an opportunity to discuss the challenges and solutions for improving the rural youth employment ecosystem.
Shri Anantkumar Hegde, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship was the Chief Guest of the event. Other esteemed dignitaries like Shri Vineet Sehgal, CMO, Quikr; Shri Hari TN, HR Head, BigBasket; Shri Madan Padaki, Founder CEO, 1Bridge; Shri Pravin Agarwala, CEO & Co-Founder, BetterPlace, Shri Manish Kumar, CEO, NSDC discussed crucial topics for the rural ecosystem like ‘Job Challenges for Bottom of the Pyramid Workforce’, ‘Advancing Skills for the Future’, ‘Entrepreneurship for Rural Youth’, ‘Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions for Rural Youth’ and ‘Roadmap of NSDC’.
Chief Guest of the event, Shri Anantkumar Hegde, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said, “We have to take our nation forward in a new direction. All of us are busy in our own work but at the same time we are also ensuring that the dream of our Honourable Prime Minister gets fulfilled. This Ministry is just three and half years old and we need everyone’s support to make our country a skilled nation. Government can create a platform where employments can be created. Industry has to build upon that platform. Together we can make our country great. We do skill gap analysis for various fields and for external factors but we do not analyse inside us. As we can find a raw diamond in a remote place, under the ground, which can be brought to cities and finish it to make a shining diamond, the same way, we can find raw talents in a village which can be skilled to make a shining diamond. But we cannot bring all the talents to cities so we need to arrange that the raw talents get nurtured in their own places and they get relevant employment there itself. While, designing the courses and platform of employment, we have to keep in mind that we cater to the skills which will be relevant for future as well. Government needs everyone’s support to create this ecosystem which is future-ready.”
“We are here not just to give employment, we have to promote entrepreneurship. There is a misconception that if people who are not working with either government or any private company, they are unemployed. But if they are doing their own work for living, they are entrepreneurs, and they are not unemployed. We need to create entrepreneurship model which can help people start their own business and that can be done with very minimal amount. We need support from the entire ecosystem. Even if someone refuses to come along with us, we would take him along with us in the way to make India a skilled nation. We have signed agreements for skilling with more than 18 countries including Japan, Sweden, Germany, Singapore, United Kingdom, USA and Belarus among others. We shall send our youth to these countries where they will get training and come back with skills or may get job there as well. In order to meet high end skill, Government of India is setting up Indian Institute of Skills in every State. Along with these, we are encouraging States/private players to establish Skill Universities. Already 8 Skill Universities have been established in various States. In order to boost skilling activities, India International Centers for Skill are being established in association with industries and business houses. To sustain a vibrant skill ecosystem Indian Skill Development Service (ISDS) is being created by the Government of India on the pattern of IAS/IPS. Center of excellence in various fields are also being established. Already in aviation sector, in association with P3 the Aviation SSC with NSDC has established Center of Excellence in Bangalore. We shall do whatever needs to be done to make India the skill capital of world,” he added.
In a session, ‘Roadmap of NSDC’, stressing on the need for skill development Mr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC said, “India has entered a demographic window of opportunity and this opportunity is available for a limited period of time. It started from the year 2005 and will continue till 2050 and we have only this time period to transform completely and bring in the change. Labour and capital are the two components that constitute economy of any nation. When we skill someone we enhance an ability of a person and also his productivity increases and every incremental increase in the productivity will make a huge difference to this country. In this moment, if we do not invest in skills then it will be extremely detrimental for our future generations. Therefore, it is very important and critical for us to put in all our energies into it to make new and skilled India.”
“After doing a random sample survey of candidates who were trained under PMKVY 2 scheme, it was found that a three-months training has approximately made a difference of around 24 percent in the income of candidates post completion of their training. Also, a SSC certification increases the employability of a person three times. Hence, it is the need of the hour to channelize our resources effectively and make India the ‘Skill Capital of the World’,” added Mr. Kumar.
The event was one-of-a-kind platform to discuss the challenges and solutions for job creation for the rural youth, and hear from the policy makers, visionaries and industry leaders for a Skilled Bharat.
