Page 61 - Enhancing innovation and participation in smart sustainable cities
P. 61
United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Enhancing Innovation and Participation
The National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), an autonomous body (registered as a Society under the
Society's Registration Act 1860), was created with the mandate to coordinate and harmonize the skill
development activities in the country
The National Skill Development Corporation India (NSDC) was set up as a one of its kind, public-private
partnership company with the primary mandate of catalysing the skills landscape in India. NSDC is a
unique model created with a well thought through underlying philosophy based on the following
objectives:
1. Create: proactively catalyse creation of large, quality vocational training institutions.
2. Fund: reduce risk by providing patient capital; including grants and equity.
3. Enable: the creation and sustainability of support systems required for skill development. This includes
the industry-led Sector Skill Councils.
The National Skill Development Fund was set up for raising funds both from government and non-
government sectors for skill development in the country. The fund is contributed to by various
government sources, and other donors/ contributors to enhance, stimulate and develop the skills of
Indian youth by various sector specific programmes. A public trust set up by the Government of India is
the custodian of the fund. The fund meets its objectives through National Skill Development Corporation
(NSDC)
The Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) was established in 1993 in Guwahati by the erstwhile
Ministry of Industry (now the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), Government of India,
as an autonomous national institute with an aim to undertake training, research and consultancy
activities in small and micro-enterprises focusing on entrepreneurship development.
Sector Skill Councils are set up as autonomous industry-led bodies by NSDC. They create occupational
standards and qualification bodies, develop competency frameworks, conduct train the trainer
Programmes, conduct skills gap studies and assess and certify trainees on the curriculum aligned to
national occupational standards developed by them.
To date, the NSDC Board has approved proposals for 38 Sector Skill Councils. There are approximately
450 corporate representatives in the governing councils of these SSCs.
The National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development is a society under the
Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises engaged in training, consultancy, research and
publication, in order to promote entrepreneurship.
Country-level stakeholders from the industry side include Power Grid, NSDF and NSDC. PGCI, etc. Self-Employed
Women's Association (SEWA) and NSDC provide skills training to 132 313 informal economy women workers in
four priority sectors, in a span of 10 years, in the state of Gujarat and to create access to finance for 96 157 informal
economy women workers of Gujarat, to procure skills and investment in livelihoods.
Collaborations with other PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings – Public Sector Enterprises in India) such as NTPC and
private sector companies have been initiated.
At the International level there are number of organizations involved in the process for international best practices.
The objective is to leverage the best international practices while fine tuning the whole structure based on local
conditions.
Policies/strategies that made implementation possible
The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is committed to overall human resource development,
to take advantage of the demographic profile of the country's population in the coming years. Developing a
comprehensive and holistic policy document is an integral part of the process.
The objective of the National Policy on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015, is to meet the challenge of
skilling at scale with speed and to standard (quality). It aims to provide an umbrella framework to all skilling
activities being carried out within the country, to align them to common standards and link the skilling with
demand centres.
In addition to laying down the objectives and expected outcomes, the effort has been to identify the various
institutional frameworks which act as the vehicle to reach the expected outcomes. The national policy aims to
U4SSC series 59
