India can reap the demographic dividend of a young population provided the young citizens of the country are educated and possess the skills required for earning a decent livelihood, and reaching higher levels of achievement in their personal and professional lives. We have the serious challenge of providing quality education and skills to about 85% of the people aged between 15 and 59 years, who acquire less than 12 years of education. A social and economic policy of inclusive development cannot ignore the fact that a significant proportion of India’s citizens are forced to take up unskilled work because they lack the education and skills required for taking up economically and professionally rewarding employment.

Skill requirement studies estimate that India will require around 26 crore skilled people by 2018 and around 34 crore by 2022. These studies also indicate that we need to provide quality training to around 8 crore people in the next 5 years. There is a significant gap between the requirement and the supply which unless checked will constrain our economic growth.

This is the backdrop in which this fourth meeting of this Council is being held. While we have taken many steps in the last 8 years to address the problems related to education and health, I must say our efforts on skill development side so far have been rather tentative. We can't let this state of affairs continue.

While we have set ambitious medium and long term targets for skill development, we need to see whether our plans are backed by matching outlays. All Central Ministries and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) put together will be able to train around 40 lakh people in 2011-12, whereas we need to train around 8 crore people in the next 5 years. Naturally, we cannot achieve our goal with a ‘business as usual’ approach. Key Central Ministries therefore need to scale up their skill development programmes substantially and propose ambitious skilling initiatives in the 12th Plan. In the background of the 12th Plan that is being written, an inter-ministerial group has been set up recently to suggest appropriate strategies to achieve the task of transformational upscaling of skills. I hope that the group would be able to quickly finalize its report, so that it may act as a major input related to skill development in the 12th Plan document.

The Budget making exercise for 2012-13 has already started. This is therefore the appropriate time to set the Ministry-wise targets for people to be skilled, in the next financial year, so that the concerned Ministries may project the corresponding requirement of funds.

The Ministries while designing their skill development initiatives need to -

(a) concentrate on sectors with potential like infrastructure, real estate, auto and auto components, textile, health care, retail and logistics;

(b) keep in mind the skilling needs of the people belonging to SC, ST, backward classes, minorities and people with disabilities with special focus on women;

(c) deploy technology in delivery and monitoring of the skill development initiatives; and

(d) work closely with the states, particularly those who have created state skill mission, so that States are allowed to select training providers and trades, and create a decentralized approval mechanisms.

We had discussed the need to open a credit window for vocational courses in the last meeting. I am told because of personal interest taken by Mr. Ramadorai, the Indian Banks Association has recently approved a scheme to meet this long standing need. We now need to ensure that the needy youth start getting credit through this window.

Now, I would request Mr. Ramadorai to make a presentation to facilitate an agenda-wise discussion.