Union Minister Pandey meets Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Mahendra Nath Pandey on July 28, 2019, met  Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister of Assam, to discuss how the Centre and State can further Prime Minister’s Skill India Mission in the State and empower the youth with market relevant skills to enhance their productivity and contribute to the economic development of the North Eastern Region of the country. They agreed to collaborate to set up the recently announced Skill University in the State aligning it to the national skill standards ensuring common framework and delivery in quality of training.

This meeting was in addition to a closed-door review meeting organised by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in Guwahati on July 27, 2019, late evening, on the work done so far in the North Eastern states of the country. The meeting was presided over by Mahendra Nath Pandey, Union Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister. It was attended by dignitaries from States including Skills Ministers namely – Chandra Mohan Patowary, Minister, Assam; Tumke Bagra, Minister, Arunachal Pradesh; Radhey Shyam, Minister, Manipur, and Imnatiba, Minister, Nagaland, according to a PIB release.

Pandey reviewed all programmes and schemes implemented across the eight states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, and Tripura. The various schemes and programme, management structures and processes, enhanced infrastructure, and local challenges encountered within these initiatives were discussed at this session. The success of reaching out to 2.5 lakh youth is the biggest accomplishment for the ministry to be able to move towards achieving the aims of Skill India Mission, as envisioned by PM Narendra Modi.

Pandey said, “I feel such institutionalised interactions like this one between Central and State leaders, and policy makers, are crucial to the strategy of bringing in synergies and convergence across all initiatives of skill development in the country, and transform the lives of our youth. This brings with it peace, prosperity and all-round progress, a key goal for the government for the North-Eastern States. We are making continuous efforts to scale up existing efforts to enhance skill development in India in the context of the country’s transition to a knowledge-based economy through the creation of a professional skilled workforce. It is important that we focus on the ‘Look East and Act East’ policy of government to ensure we achieve the goal of Kaushal Bharat Kushal Bharat of Skill India.”

On strengthening of the ITIs and NSTIs in the North-East region, it was discussed that there are 73 ITIs with seating capacity of 17,000, of which around 13,000 cater to the engineering or technical trades like electrician, auto-mechanics etc. There is a shortage of facility for training of trainers at these facilities. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship decided to set up an NSTI in the region. Manipur Government assured all support in setting up of the institute to fill in this gap including provision of land. MSDE has also released Rs 60 lakh towards upgrading of training equipment in Manipur. It was also decided that there will be a renewed focus on running local trade based short term courses (agriculture, fisheries etc.) at the NSTIs to reduce migration of labour from the State.