Ambitious skills development roadmap developed based on the requirements of the power sector in the next few years
India as a centre of learning will have positive impact across South Asia, says Member of Parliament Anurag Thakur
New Delhi, 4 March 2015: Inaugurating the fourth annual edition of the One Globe knowledge conference in the capital, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Coal, Power & Renewable Energy Sh. Piyush Goyal said, “Prime Minister Modi has always focused very deeply on the skills development program. Unless the education and skills start from the bottom, we will not be able to set things right at the top. Based on the requirements of the power sector in the next few years, we have charted out an ambitious three-year roadmap for the skilling targets for the National Power Training Institute (NPTI). As against a total of 267, 000 people trained by the organization in the last 40 years of its existence, we are looking at training 100,000 people in the year 2015-2016, 200,000 people in the year 2016-17 and 400,000 people in the year 2017-2018.” In the current year, the NPTI has trained about 18,700 people in various skills related to the power sector, the Minister added. National Power Training Institute (NPTI) is India’s national apex body for training and human resources development in power sector.
Harjiv Singh, Convener, One Globe 2015 conference and founder and CEO of Salwan Media, says, “India faces formidable challenges in areas like primary education, skills development, employment generation and gender equality, but the ray of hope is that we now have a full majority government that is addressing these challenges on a war-footing. The three trends of mobility, connectivity and ubiquity will be the key drivers that will enable the focus of Prime Minister Modi’s agenda of ‘Smart Cities’, ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make In India’. At the One Globe 2015 conference, it is our privilege to have Minister Piyush Goyal, a key leader in Prime Minister Modi’s cabinet who is responsible for a critical part of India’s economic growth and whose initiatives have already reaped rich dividends for the government.”
Speaking at the inaugural session, Anurag Thakur, Member of Parliament, said, “Compared to countries like Germany and South Korea where vocational training is an important way for youth to acquire skills and enter the workforce productively, India still has to create the right environment for skilling nearly 500 million people by 2022. Our government has made skills and entrepreneurship a key priority. If India can become a leading centre of learning and knowledge creation, it will also have a positive impact across South Asia as a region thereby strengthening our relations with our neighbouring countries.”