Budget aims to skill India for 'Make in India' initiative

In order to ensure adequate availability of skilled man-power to achieve the objectives of ‘Make in India’ initiatives, the government plans to launch a National Skills Mission through the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry. The finance minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget Speech 2015-16 today, said that the mission will consolidate skill development initiatives spread across several ministries. According to him, it will allow the government to standardise procedures and outcomes across 31 sector skill councils.
 
Arun Jaitely said, “India is one of the youngest nations in the world with more than 54% of the total population below 25 years of age. Yet today less than 5% of our potential workforce gets formal skill training to be employable and stay employable”.
 
The Finance Minister said that the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushal Yojana was launched to enhance the employability of Rural Youth which is the key to unlocking India’s demographic dividend. A sum of Rs 1500 crore was allocated for this scheme in the Budget, for which disbursement will be through a digital voucher directly into qualified student’s bank account.
 
Jaitley has also proposed to set up an IIT in Karnataka, and upgrade Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad into a full-fledged IIT. In addition, IIMs will be established in J&K and Andhra Pradesh. Three new National Institutes of Pharmaceuticals Education and Research are proposed to be set up in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh along with Institutes of Science and Education Research in Nagaland and Odisha.
 
For the North Eastern States, a Centre for Film Production, Animation and Gaming will be set up in Arunachal Pradesh while an Apprenticeship Training Institute for Women will be set in Haryana and Uttarakhand during 2015-16.
 
To enable all poor and middle class students to pursue higher education of their choice without any constraints of funds, a fully IT based Student Financial Aid Authority is proposed to be set up during the year 2015-16. It will administer and monitor scholarships as well as Educational Loan Schemes, through the Pradhan Mantri Vidya Lakshmi Karyakaram to ensure that no student misses out on higher education for lack of funds.