Page 58 - Enhancing innovation and participation in smart sustainable cities

United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Enhancing Innovation and Participation

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

Skill India is an initiative of the Government of India, which has been launched to empower the youth of the
country with skill sets that will make them more employable and more productive in their work environment.
National Skill Mission is chaired by the Honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi.
Today, India is a country where its youth makes up 65% of the working age group. If ever there is a way to reap
this demographic advantage, it has to be through skill development of the youth so that they add not only to their
personal growth, but also to the country’s economic growth.

Skill India offers courses across 40 sectors in the country which are aligned to the standards recognized by both
the industry and the government under the National Skills Qualification Framework. The courses help a person
focus on the practical delivery of work and help enhance technical expertise so that they are ready for day one of
a job, relieving companies of training the employee to match the job profile.
The Skill Mission launched by the Prime Minister on 15 July 2015, has gathered tremendous steam in the last year.
The target to train more than a 10 million fresh entrants into the Indian workforce has been substantially achieved
for the first time. 10.4 million Indians were trained through central government programmes and NSDC (National
Skill Development Corporation) associated training partners in the private sector.
For the first time in 70 years of India’s independence, a Ministry for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE)
has been formed to focus on enhancing employability of the youth through skill development. The skill ecosystem
in India, is seeing some great reforms and policy interventions which are reinvigorating and re-energising the
country’s workforce; and is preparing the youth for job and growth opportunities in the international market. The
Prime Minister’s flagship scheme, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) alone, has to date seen close to
two million people get skilled and prepared for a new successful India.
Skill India has responsibility for ensuring the implementation of common norms across all skill development
programmes in the country so that they are all standardized and aligned to one objective. The Industrial Training
Institute (ITI) ecosystem has also been brought under Skill India for garnering better results in vocational education
and training.

While the debate on the exact quantum of the challenge continues, there is no disputing the fact that it is indeed
a challenge of five formidable proportions. On the demand side, a skill gap study was conducted by NSDC over
2010-2014, which indicated that there is an additional net incremental requirement of 109.73 million skilled
workers by 2022 in 24 key sectors. On the supply side, analysis based on the results of the 66th and 68th round of
NSSO (National Sample Survey Office), it is observed that the total workforce in the country is estimated at 487
million, of which approximately 57% is in the non-farming sector. If the workforce with higher education, without
formal skills training are excluded, the balance workforce is estimated to be 450.4 million. Of these 256.72 million
non-farming workers, a maximum of 5.4% would be formally trained and skilled. Approximately 241.86 million
would either be unskilled or skilled through informal channels. Of these, it is estimated that approximately 170
million people would be in the age group 15 - 45 years. This workforce will need to be mapped through recognition
of existing skills and then provided with necessary skilling, reskilling and upskilling to increase productivity and
provide a livelihood pathway. Similarly, in the farming sector, this figure works out to be 128.25 million.

1.2 Challenge and response

Challenges faced that lead to design and implementation
India has a big challenge ahead as it is estimated that only 4.69% of the total workforce in India has undergone
formal skills training as compared to 68% in UK, 75% in Germany, 52% in USA, 80% in Japan and 96% in South
Korea.
In addition, the number of people who enter the work force age group every year is estimated to be 26.14 million.
Assuming an average labour participation rate of 90% (male) and 30% (female), at least 16.16 million persons will
enter the workforce and they all, except those opting for higher education, need to acquire skills. This will add
another 104.62 million persons to be skilled in the next seven years. Thus, it can be seen that 104.62 million fresh
entrants to the workforce over the next seven years (by 2022) will need to be skilled.

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