SHILLONG, Oct 1: Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Jayant Chaudhary on Tuesday stressed the need to prepare a roadmap for skill development and entrepreneurship in the region.
Speaking at the North East Skill and Entrepreneurship Conclave 2024 held at IIM-Shillong, Chaudhary said the northeastern states have varying priorities and models for enhancing skill development and entrepreneurship.
He said it cannot be a unitary approach since India can never succeed and move ahead with that kind of thinking.
“At many stages, the Prime Minister talks about competitive and cooperative federalism, and there are institutional mechanisms that play. Even if the central government is dominant, it cannot trample the democratic institutions, their systems and methodologies. So we are and will remain a strong federal structure,” he said.
Chaudhary said some states have skill development under the Labour Department while some have a Skill Development department since it is not streamlined. “Even at the Centre, it has only been about 10 years that the Ministry of Skill Development was formed,” he pointed out.
He expressed happiness with the presentation made by the bureaucrats of the states on the roadmap for skill development. “Some of the presentations were simplistic but there was passion and a sense of commitment,” he said.
According to him, the presentation given by the states clearly shows that there is clarity in thinking unlike at the Centre.
Chaudhary said the northeastern states, over the past decade, have experienced a resurgence, reclaiming their position of prominence.
“The government’s focus on the ‘Act Fast for North East and Act First for North East’ policy has enabled the region to emerge as a key contributor across various sectors. With improved connectivity and a rising pool of educated youth, all eight states are experiencing double-digit growth, which will contribute significantly to India’s five trillion economy goal,” he said.
He said the Centre has provided a budget for strengthening and upgrading some 1,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across the country.
“These institutes have a long history. Some of them are old but now we have a mandate to strengthen the ITIs. I don’t remember ITIs being mentioned in budget speeches earlier,” Chaudhary said.
He also said there are different models to run the ITIs and the public-private partnership mode can be one of them.
“We need to adopt the right system where people who are part of the system are benefited. We will have people from the private sector come on board to give their expertise and investment on how to strengthen the ITIs,” he said.
On the occasion, Chaudhary unveiled 30 Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs) and four incubation centres under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship across the northeastern region.
The project aims to empower the youth by fostering entrepreneurial skills and building a sustainable ecosystem through these EDCs and incubation centres.
It combines hard interventions like infrastructure development with soft interventions such as 90 entrepreneurship awareness programmes, 90 entrepreneurship development programmes, 40 faculty development programmes, and various competitions to inspire innovation. These efforts target the creation of 900 startups across the region.
The event was aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and skill development in the northeastern region of India. The conclave included promoting regional cooperation by aligning state-level initiatives with the ministry’s vision for a strong entrepreneurship and skills ecosystem.
The event was graced by ministers Nyato Dukam (Arunachal Pradesh), Jayanta Malla Baruah (Assam), Shakliar Warjri (Meghalaya), and Lalnghinglova Hmar (Mizoram).
