Bihar govt reaches out to electronics, telecom firms for skilling, employing state's youths

The Bihar government Monday reached out to electronics and telecom companies and industry bodies for skilling of youths of the state and providing them employment opportunities.

"We have been running 'recruit, train and deploy' programme for the last two years. Now we want electronics and telecom companies to be part of it. Under which, the Bihar government will meet the training and recruitment related costs for youth to make them employable in companies," Dipak Kumar Singh, principal secretary, Labour Resources and CEO, Bihar Skill Development Mission (BSDM), said after a meeting with industry players here.

Singh said the state government has no shortage of funds for skilling youths in the state.

"Our Chief Minister (Nitish Kumar) wants youths to get jobs. There will be no cap on the number of youth that can be trained for employment in electronics and mobile phone companies," the official said at the Mobile Manufacturers Conclave organised by the BSDM.

He said that due to exorbitant land cost in Bihar, the state government has been unable to attract industries or companies that require large chunk of land but is ready to invest even if recruitment of youths takes place outside the state.

The meeting organised by the BSDM in the national capital saw participation from companies like Samsung, Lava, Karbonn Mobile, Xiaomi, Dixon Technologies, Lenovo, Jio Mobile, and industry bodies like India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), CMAI Association of India, Telecom Sector Skill Council, Electronics Sector Skill Council, etc, as per details shared by the state government officials.

Singh said the BSDM is open to industry deciding on a course curriculum to suit their needs for the recruit-train-deploy programme.

"Bihar government and BSDM are very earnestly trying to structure and leverage the tremendous demographic dividend which the state enjoys in partnership with us. We are in the process of a feasibility study for building a formal structure of training and deployment," Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman, ICEA, said.

He said that an entire ecosystem of candidates, training partners, trainers, assessing bodies, etc, has to be established.

"We are happy to see the conviction and passion with which BSDM is working and sincerely hope that a great partnership between our industry and Bihar is going to be created for the benefit of our industry, Bihar and the nation," Mohindroo said.