’Rs. 7.5 lakh cr. needed to create 50 crore skilled workforce’

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia (left) and Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna (right) with US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer, in Washington recently. Photo: PTI.

The Planning Commission has requested the government to grant Rs. 7.5 lakh crores for achieving its mission of creating 50 crore skilled people, both in the organised and unorganised sectors over the next decade.

“We have requested the government to sanction around Rs. 7,50,000 crores to achieve the mission by 2022. We are awaiting the government’s decision in this regard,” Chairman, Sub-Group, Skill Development, Planning Commission, M.N. Chaini, told PTI here.

“The government has already spent Rs. 32,000 crores in skill-development. We need more money to accelerate the project,” Mr. Chaini said.

The Government has set up a national policy on skill development to create a workforce empowered with improved skills and knowledge to gain access to decent employment and ensure the country’s competitiveness in the dynamic global labour market.

It aims to increase productivity of the workforce both in the organised and the unorganised sectors and seeks increased participation of youth, women, disabled and other disadvantaged sections. It also seeks to synergise the efforts of various sectors and reform the present system.