India will be made generator free: Power Minister

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will work to provide 24×7 power supply to the people of India during its tenure and work towards making India “generator and inverter free,” Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (with independent charge) for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy said.

Delivering The Economist’s The India Summit’s 2014 keynote address — “Powering India’s Future” in the capital, Mr. Goyal, said that the greatest challenge he faced when he started as power minister was the transmission and distribution of power. He assured, “The Modi government will work to provide 24X7 power supply within the span of their tenure, with the expectation of making the country generator and inverter free.”

Smriti may lead new department of skill development

Human resource development minister Smriti Irani is likely to be put in charge of a new department of skill development and entrepreneurship, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet projects.

The department will ensure speedy and quality training to India’s youth, making them more employable. It will be carved out of 21 ministries dealing with the Centre’s skill development programmes, and focus on Modi’s mantra of 3S — Scale, Speed and Skill.

NSDC targets 3.3 mn for skill development

GUWAHATI, Aug 10 – The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has set a target to impart skill training to 3.3 million youths in 2014-15.

The target committed for the current fiscal is nearly three and half times of what was set and achieved for 2013-14, said a statement from NSDC.

“The target for NSDC is to impart skill training to 3.3 million this year and I am sure the team will ensure that they are met. It is absolutely necessary to ensure that the industry be made a major partner in making India a skilled nation,” said Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of State (independent charge) for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports.

Sector Skill Councils: The way forward for Skill Development in India

In the Indian context of sustained economic growth, need for competent SSCs is immense which may aid in setting up national training centers of excellence and develop national occupational standard, training curricula & promote research. Efforts should also be channelized to upgrade labor force skills, especially for underprivileged sections of society and in backward regions of the country.

Odisha to impart skill development training to 11 lakh youths

The Odisha government today decided to impart employment linked skill development training to 11 lakh youths within a period of five years, an official release said.

The decision was taken at a high level meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here.

“The scheme will be implemented through Mukhyamantri Nijukti Srusti Yojana,” the release said.

Modi calls to focus on skill development, manufacturing for job creation

New Delhi: Reiterating his vision on creating jobs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his maiden Independence Day speech said India must focus on growing the manufacturing sector and on developing skills to provide meaningful employment to millions of young Indians.

“Today, if we want to give more and more employment opportunities to the youth, then we will have to promote the manufacturing sector,” Modi said on Friday.

SkillMin merged with sports, youth affairs; Gets ITIs, NSDC:-

Over two months after the announcement, the government has given final shape to the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship that will be a part of the ministry of sports and youth affairs.

Carved out after discussions with nearly two dozen ministries that are already involved in vocational training, the ministry of skill development has taken over key roles from the finance ministry as well as the labour ministry.

A time to upskill

Less than 10 per cent of the Indian workforce has had formal skill training, while in countries like South Korea, it is closer to 98 per cent. We have had two consecutive years of rising unemployment. Nearly 95 per cent of our workforce is in the unorganised sector, which is a way of saying the people working in this sector have had no formal training in any skill. Agriculture and construction constitute a large part of this sector.

PM Narendra Modi’s 100 days: Smart cities set for take-off, state governments asked to identify cities

Among PM Modi’s pet plans, few would be more significant to India than building 100 smart cities, as the country is in the middle of a massive wave of urbanisation. Modi was smitten with the idea of a smart city long ago, and he had set the ball rolling in Gujarat with the Greenfield Gujarat International Finance Tec-city (GIFT). This venture is now proceeding rapidly, as it has been allotted 11 million sq ft for construction. As he moved to the Centre, Modi started work on implementing the idea all across India. It is among his few plans that are moving smoothly ahead.

Aviation secy moves to environment

The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Friday announced new secretaries for five ministries/departments. This is for the first time since Modi took charge as prime minister that so many ministries have undergone bureaucratic changes at the top. The most significant shuffle seems to be that of Ashok Lavasa, who has been named secretary, environment ministry.