New Delhi: The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship plans to incentivise districts and states to work closely with industry to address local skill gaps through a hyper-local approach, as part of efforts to build a future-ready workforce, a senior official said on Monday.
Speaking at the CII Smart Manufacturing Summit 2025, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Secretary Debashree Mukherjee said the strategy will focus on specific industrial clusters and their planning requirements to better align skilling initiatives with local investment and employment needs.
She said the ministry intends to encourage districts and states to jointly plan with industries to identify and address skill shortages at the district and divisional levels. “The idea is hyper-local planning to ensure that skill development follows investments. We want to look at where the clusters are, what the planning needs are, and how those needs can be met locally,” Mukherjee said.
The secretary also noted that the ministry is exploring the use of artificial intelligence-enabled regulatory processes to reduce compliance burdens for stakeholders.
Highlighting the use of digital platforms, Mukherjee said the Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH) and the National Career Service (NCS) portals have been integrated to improve job matching. The SIDH is managed by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, while the NCS operates under the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
The integrated NCS–SIDH platforms will use AI to match industry job postings with nearby trained candidates, with automated alerts to eligible workers set to begin within 15 days.