Strength of India’s economy will be entrepreneurship : Jaitley

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Embarking on an ambitious mission to empower Indian youth with skill training and employability, the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) on November 9, 2017, hosted the National Entrepreneurship Awards 2017 marking the completion of three glorious years of its inception. The awards were conferred in the presence of Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship  Dharmendra Pradhan, Ambassador of Japan to India Kenji Hiramatsu, Secretary MSDE K P Krishnan and Managing Director & CEO, ICICI Bank Ltd Ms Chanda Kochhar.

Congratulating all the entrepreneurs recognized by MSDE this year and highlighting the challenges of limited job creation capacity, Finance Minister Jaitley, according to a PIB release,  said, “India has a much younger population vis-a-vis other advance economies. This is a huge opportunity for us to scale up and skill our workforce and reap our demographic dividend and service economies. Conventionally our focus was on awarding degrees with always a debate on how we link them to jobs. Over a period of time we have realised that we need to skill our youth for these jobs. Conventionally people were skilled according to their communities but as economies develop and there is advent of technology, we need to realize the importance of reskilling and upskilling, to bridge the demand supply gap. As the economy expands, a specialized skilled workforce is the need to the hour.”

“The Strength of India’s economy will be entrepreneurship. We have to ensure that we do not restrict the youth. We let them unleash their energy, allow them to move away from the beaten track and build new ideas for the new India,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Pradhan, said, “India has become an emerging market for global investors and entrepreneurship can majorly contribute to the country’s economy. Skill development and entrepreneurship form the basis for the growth of any country. Our endeavour is to empower our youth and equip them with the right skill sets and create a conducive environment to help them build sustainable business solutions/model. In the years to come, entrepreneurship will be the key to attain a double-digit GDP.”

The National Entrepreneurship Awards (NEA) was instituted by MSDE in 2016 to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship across the country. This year the second edition of awards were conducted which saw participation from 2,880 applicants of which 45 were shortlisted and finally 15 winners across defined categories were announced and awarded. Winners were given a cash award of Rs 5 lakh (enterprises and individuals) and Rs 10 lakh (organizations/institutes) along with a certificate and trophy recognizing their efforts of being the change agents in India’s development.