President Pranab Mukherjee to inaugurate IndiaSkills Competition on July 15

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the first edition of ‘IndiaSkills Competition’ on July 15, which is commemorated as World Youth Skills Day.

IndiaSkills is a national competition organised by the ministry of skill development & entrepreneurship (MSDE) and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to select talent to lead India’s participation at the biennial WorldSkills International Competition, which will be held in Abu Dhabi in 2017.

The opening ceremony for IndiaSkills will be held at Vigyan Bhawan on July 15, while the main competition will be held at Pragati Maidan on July 16 and 17, the government said in a statement.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, minister of state for skill development & entrepreneurship (independent charge), said, “The year has been remarkable with more than 1.04 crore youth trained under various initiatives of Skill India in 2015-16, marking 36.8% growth compared to the year before."

As part of the selection process for IndiaSkills, the ministry and NSDC have completed more than 80 regional competitions in 24 skills/trades, including hair styling, welding, car painting, auto body repair, graphic designing and robotics, to name a few.

The press release said close to 4,820 candidates registered to compete this year. At the last event organised at Sao Paolo, Brazil, in August 2015, a team of 29 candidates (all below 23 years of age) participated in 27 skills and won eight medallions of excellence.