Narendra Modi slams Centre for not paying attention to skill development for youth

NEW DELHI: Gujarat chief minister and BJP's candidate for prime ministership for the general elections next year, Narendra Modi slammed UPA government for its indecisiveness in skill development programmes for youth. He was addressing a conference organized by labour and employment department along with Gujarat Council of Vocational Training of government of Gujarat.

While inaugurating a national conference on skill development in Gandhinagar, he said, "The Prime Minister had set up National Skill Development Council in year 2008 following which national policy of same was announced in 2009. After they formed National Skill Development Corporation Board but eventually there was no progress made on implementation of this policy." He added that now in July 2013, they merged all these agencies and formed new one but are yet to create a model for skill development. "By creating skilled development network, Gujarat has provided an inspiration for the Centre," said Modi. He told over 5000 participants from 28 states and four Union Territories that the Prime Minister of India himself has given Gujarat national award for best skill development and recognized it at national level.

Modi stated that keeping the skill development at its centre Gujarat has taken an initiative to deliberate on it at the national level. Modi said, "The present central government and Prime Minister are talking about starting 500 skill development courses. But China has already initiated thousands of courses for its youth. How long will we make our youth wait in realizing their dreams?" He said problems of unemployment could be resolved by the skills and craftsmanship.

World Bank's Social Promotion Unit senior economist John David, Australian Trade Commissioner Tom Calder, the ministers of the state, secretaries, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) chairman Dr SS Mantha, advisor to Planning Commission Sunita Sanghi and industrial houses - officials from different Industrial Training Institutes and specialists in skill development attended the event.

"The way we gave importance to higher education in IIM and IIT, today we need to give similar importance to ITI and skill development", said Modi, adding that the share of manufacturing sector in India's economy is decisive and to capture the world market with zero defect productions and low-cost manufacturing, it is equally important to empower the skill development sector.