The government is targeting to equipped as many as 10 million youths of the country with the new-age skills
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first full-fledged Union Budget of Narendra Modi 2.0 government in the parliament on Friday, proposing various new plans for improving education sector and employability of the country’s youth.
In her maiden budget speech, she said that the government will focus on training youth in newer areas like artificial intelligence, internet of things, big data and robotics to empower them to take up the high-paying jobs overseas.
The government is targeting to equipped as many as 10 million youths of the country with the new-age skills, in order to create a big pool of competent manpower.
These training will be provided under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, which is a branched-out version of Skill India campaign that aims at training more than 40 crore Indian citizens by the year 2022.
Turning India into Education Hub
Sitharaman said that efforts will be made to bring in foreign students under a ‘Study in India’ plan.
The government also proposes allocation of Rs 400 crore for setting up world-class higher education institutions in the country.
Pankaj Muthe, Program Manager, Academic Program (APAC) at Qlik, lauded the government’s continued push to improve the quality of higher education in India.
“The allocation of INR 400 crore to create a world-class higher education ecosystem in the country will definitely improve the quality of talent that joins the workforce. The focus on the amplification of skills in new-age tech domains such as AI, IoT, Big Data, and Robotics will also help to address the severe skills shortage that businesses across India are facing at present, apart from opening newer avenues of career growth for Indian professionals,” he said.
Data literacy training needed
However, Muthe suggested that the government should also make stronger efforts to incorporate data literacy training at the grassroots level and incentivise organisations to launch data literacy training initiatives for their employees.
“Doing so will equip current and future Indian professionals with the required knowledge and competencies to navigate the data-driven world of tomorrow,” he said.
