Nirmala Sitharaman emphasises on indigenous skill development

KOLKATA: Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman today applauded the Skill India programme and emphasised on the need for indigenous skill development.

Speaking at a seminar on Skill India, Sitharaman said the country should emphasise on several indigenous skills that India had excelled like handlooms, locks and weaving among others.

Citing an example of losing strength in carpentry, she said India had been great in carpentry, but failed to scale up and was witnessing a lot of imports in the sector from other countries.

Sitharaman also advocated sharing of knowledge on skill among states to scale up the talent.

Highlighting the need for reducing skill gap, the Union Minister pointed out that India's ranking in human capital development was 100th and the Skill India initiative was aimed at improving it.

India needs to reskill 406 million of its citizens and equip 109 million more over the next 4-5 years, she said.

Bridging the skill gap would also help in fulfilling the dream of Make in India , for which investments from across the globe was sought the Government , Sitharaman said.