NSDC inks pact with Art of Living wing to train youth

National Skill Development Corporation has signed an agreement with Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir Trust, the educational wing of Art of Living, for promoting skill development and entrepreneurship among youth.
According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the Trust and the NSDC will collaborate with each other to create programmes for vocational training and select training providers and candidates. They will adopt strategies utilising digitisation as a means for promoting skilling, entrepreneurship and enhancing the employment potential.
"We want to take the Digital India movement to rural India. It is not going to be easy unless we have a credible social capital structure which people can trust. Art of Living has that network so we want to capitalise on it. Our training partners will train Art of Living volunteers who will go down to the village and remote areas to impart skill development.

"We are looking at irrigation and water resource management as ground water levels are depleting. We are also looking at how to enhance female labour force participation and empower women, and skill development of persons with disabilities," NSDC MD & CEO Manish Kumar told PTI.
He further said the collaboration aims to equip entrepreneurs with digital skills that will enable them to grow their ventures.
The NSDC and the Trust will undertake skill development programmes in water resource rejuvenation & management and work towards the development of agricultural skills among youth.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Sri and Sri Ravi Shankar, Founder of Art of Living Foundation.

Under the MoU, NSDC and the Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir Trust will set up a panel of experts or an organisation, which can provide consultancy and executive functionality for diverse areas of subjects like financing and marketing tailored to the digital medium.
They will make available their network and partners to spread skilling & entrepreneurship development and capacity building in an optimal manner including hand holding.