India should emerge as the ‘human resource capital’ of the world as China has become a global ‘manufacturing factory’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday while launching the ambitious ‘Skill India’ Mission as part of the government’s “war against poverty”.
Modi said India has the potential to provide a workforce of about 4 to 5 crore to the world if the capabilities of the countrymen are honed through proper and dynamic training in skills and added that the government is focussed on this aspect.
Noting that the world and technology is changing fast, he said, “We need to have futuristic vision and prepare plans for the next 10 years” and advocated the need for regular interaction between industry and technology experts.
“If China is like a ‘manufacturing factory’ of the world, India should become the ‘human resource capital’ of the world. That should be our target and we should lay emphasis on that,” Modi said addressing an event here to launch the ‘Skill India’ Mission which was attended by several union ministers and Chief Ministers of various states.
Observing that there are several developed nations which have wealth but not human resources, he said India, in the near future, will be the only country that can cater to this requirement if proper skills are developed here.
“People of India have huge capabilities and this has been recognised the world over since centuries. We have forgotten the skills. We have to regain those,” he said, adding the training institutes in India need to be dynamic.
“We have 65 per cent of the population below 35 years of age, how will they face the challenges if they are not skilled? If they can’t face challenges, they themselves will become a challenge for us, India’s 1st priority is to generate employment opportunities”, PM Modi said, adding, “Poor don’t have high ambitions of buying a bungalow or expensive cars, they just want their children to be self-dependent. We want to work in this direction in a structured & organized way, taking States along, with a new start.”
Asserting that there is no reason for unemployment and poverty in the country, he said “the foremost priority of the government is to create jobs. For this, we have to create proper structures and this mission is an effort in that direction.”
He said while the Indian IITs made a name for themselves globally in the last century, it is the turn of ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) to do the same this century.
Government will bring in a legislation in Parliament to establish Skill Universities in every state, as a part of its efforts to create a large pool of skilled workforce in the country, Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said on the occasion.
“... Prime Minister had directed that to achieve this objective (skill development) we will have to set up Skill Universities and work with states to achieve the goal. We are confident that in the coming days we will bring in a legislation in Parliament to make an attempt to establish a Skill University in every state,” Rudy said.
Data from the Census 2011 and 68th round of the National Sample Survey revealed than an estimated 10.4 crore fresh workers would enter the labour market and require skill training by 2022, and 29.8 crore of the existing workforce will require additional skill training over the same time period.