Skill India introduces insurance cover for PMKVY certified candidates

Skill India has introduced two new benefits, accident insurance cover and DigiLocker facility, for certified candidates under the PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) to encourage youth to take up skill enhancement programmes.

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is implementing the Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Ministry's flagship scheme PMKVY.

"NSDC has collaborated with The New India Assurance Co. Ltd. (NIA) to provide Kaushal Bima insurance facility to the certified candidates under the scheme. As per the current regulations of IRDA, 3-year Personal Accidental Insurance covering death and permanent disability for a sum insured of Rs 2 lakh will be provided through the scheme," an official statement said.

The New India Assurance Company Ltd. has created a master policy for all the candidates who will receive the insurance benefit under PMKVY scheme with a validity of three years from the date of certification. The insurance premium will be borne by the NSDC.

A special toll-free help-line will also be extended by NIA to address insurer's grievances.

Further, the certified candidates will be provided facility to access their Skill Certificate through DigiLocker. The same can be downloaded using a mobile app or the web portal. DigiLocker is a key initiative under the Digital India program.

Digilocker is a platform for issuance and verification of documents & certificates in a digital way, thus eliminating the use of physical documents.