41 per cent hike in Labour Ministry budget

The Labour and Employment Ministry was today allocated Rs 2,398 crore in the 2014-15 Interim Budget, a hike of around 41 per cent over the last fiscal, with the government focusing on skill development.
In 2013-14 fiscal, the government had allocated a revised estimate of Rs 1700 crore to the Ministry.
With skill development being an important component of the Ministry and high on the government agenda, Finance Minister P Chidambaram proposed Rs 1000 crore to the national skill development trust to scale up the skill building activities.
In the last fiscal also, the government had allocated Rs 1000 crore under the national skill certification and monitoring rewarding scheme.

The scheme has been "widely hailed as a success" and at the last count, 24 sector skill councils, 442 training partners and 17 assessment agencies have joined the programme, while 204 job roles have been finalised, he said.
He said that 168,043 youth had enrolled and 77,710 have completed their training.
"I may add that the national skill development corporation actually complements the initiatives of several ministries which steer skill development programmes such as Udaan in Jammu and Kashmir," he said.