Centre, State collaborate to build industrial clusters in UP

Delivering on the promises made by the Centre to the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government on maximum support in ensuring development in the state, Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge) Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Friday met with Satish Mahana, the Industrial Development Minister for the state.

The two discussed the scope for skill development for the youth in UP and how bringing scale and speed to the skill initiatives will serve as a major impetus to the industrial plans for the State.

Mahana mentioned that the state has indentified three industrial clusters in the region - in Noida, Agra and Kanpur; which will help increase the pace of industrialisation in UP. He said it is crucial to have a ready workforce which is well-equipped with the latest skills and technological know-how to achieve the mission of the newly-formed government.

"We have courses under Skill India which are aligned to the National Skill Qualification Framework special to industrial sector requirement and we would be more than happy to extend our support in building the new Uttar Pradesh as envisioned by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This initiative will address the issue of migration of youth from UP for better job prospects and at the same time boost the industrial development in the state," said Rudy.

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has been working closely with the private sector in UP to promote skill development in the state through its implementation arm, National Skill Development Corporation.

Under the short-term skill development courses, more than 3.65 lakh students have already been skilled so far in the state out of which more than 50 percent have already been placed.

The meeting also saw representation from the UP Skill Development Mission (UPSDM) team which was asked to work closely in conjunction with the Centre and get inducted into the central schemes and projects and focus on convergence of all initiatives for a wider impact.

MSDE will be helping the youth be trained in technologies so that they can help in close monitoring of the initiatives being run by the government and have a better impact. The state will also have access to a central portal which will have aggregation of all data and workforce to align itself to the skill ecosystem.

MSDE will also work closely with UPSDM to successfully run the Recognition of Prior learning (RPL) program which does assessment and evaluation of prior experience of a person and gives them a government and industry certification recognising their level of expertise.