HRD department minister PK Shahi and (right) adviser to Prime Minister on NSDC S Ramadorai at the news conference on Wednesday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, July 6: Bihar might not be getting the special status tag for itself but it has earned a special focus of the National Skill Development Council (NSDC).

S. Ramadorai, former CEO of Tata Consultancy Services and advisor to the Prime Minister for the NSDC, today said Bihar would be given special focus in its mission.

The NSDC, as part of vision 2020, aims to develop skilled workforce by providing training to around 500 million people in the country by 2022, even though the government as well as private sector initiatives in skill development programmes.

Ramadorai was in the state capital today to attend a meeting to discuss skill development, professional training and state’s fund share and other factors required to implement the schemes properly.

He said the NSDC, which is headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeks to develop a strategy for skill development along with mutual co-ordination and co-operation between the Centre and the state.

Ramadorai said: “Our focus is to upgrade skills of youths in the age group of 18 to 25 so that they can match the skilled labour force at the international level. For this, we are planning to involve industries and trade bodies.”

On Bihar, he said as the state has a population of more than 10 crore, special emphasis and focus would be given to it so that people who go to other states or even abroad do not face any difficulties.

Special focus will be given to the underprivileged sections of the society as well as the backward regions of the country. Moreover, the skill development programme also aims to eradicate poverty giving special attention to upgrade the skills of people engaged in skilled labour force.

State human resources development (HRD) department minister P.K. Shahi, who was also present at the meeting, said Bihar would benefit from the skill development schemes. “For a state like Bihar, which is an agrarian state, a large number of people are associated with agriculture. We can also boast of having huge human resources.”

The HRD minister said, as part of its skill development programme, special emphasis would be given on vocational education. Institutions engaged with skill development, such as Industrial Training Institute (ITIs), would be strengthened and more such institutes would come up.

The curriculum of vocational education would also be started at the school level.

Shahi said: “Vocational subjects will be taught from Class IX itself and it will be taught till Class XII.”

He pointed out that the state government’s schemes like Hunar Yojana and Auzar Yojana are being worked upon with special focus on educating the students and work on their skills.

On the reason behind his visit to Bihar, Ramadorai said: “The idea of coming here was to create a framework for the NSDC mission. For this reason, we held meetings with heads of various departments such as education, labour and finance.”

He pointed out that the concept would be prepared by the 12th Five Year Plan, which includes funds and creating necessary infrastructure for the mission.

The adviser to the Prime Minister added that the Planning Commission would be the nodal agency for providing administrative, logistic, planning and budgeting support to the office of adviser to the Prime Minister.