Ramadorai made PM’s skill council advisor

NEW DELHI: The Centre has named former Tata Consultancy Services CEO S Ramadorai as an advisor to the prime minister in the National Skill Development Council (NSDC) with the rank of a Cabinet minister.

The council was set up in 2008, to set the vision and form core strategies for developing skills among India’s large population of young people. The council forms an important part of the government’s initiatives to nurture India’s demographic dividend.

He becomes the second high-profile CEO from India’s celebrated information technology industry to be tapped to head a key government initiative and accorded a Cabinet rank.

Former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani heads the Unique Identification Authority of India.

Ramadorai, currently vice-chairman of TCS, served as CEO between 1996 and 2009. During this period, the company’s revenues grew from $400 million to $6 billion.

“He has been hand-picked by the prime minister to advise the National Council on Skill Development,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. The PM’s skills development initiative operates through a threetier structure that has, apart from the council headed by the PM, a co-ordination council headed by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and a National Skills Development Corporation under the finance ministry.

The non-profit corporation is a public-private partnership that focuses on fostering private sector initiatives. “Investment in skills is critical for benefiting from the demographic dividend of India. It is already one of the youngest nations in the world with a majority of people below 30,” the PMO statement said. Ramdorai’s terms of reference include advising and supervising the development of a strategy for skill development at the national level as well as in states.