From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Apr 17: Developmental Skills of India’s huge reservoir of young labour force could propel the country’s GDP growth rate to 9 per cent during the 12th five year plan period, said the Planning Commission’s Deputy Chairman Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Inaugurating the Multi Skill Development Centre (MSDC) established in Bangalore in collaboration with Central Government and GIZ, Germany, Dr Ahluwalia said: ''Our economy will not achieve 9 per cent GDP growth without developing skills of young people.”
Skill development would not only broaden the employment base but also enhance employment opportunities and income of an individual, he said pointing out that the country was surely bound to climb to its full potential in the coming years
Talking to reporters later, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission said RBI’s moves for reducing lending rates along with government’s efforts to bring down fiscal deficit should boost economic growth this year.
“I think the lowering of the interest rate by RBI combined with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s endeavours to bring the fiscal deficit down, should propel the economy upwards this year,” he said.
Dr Ahluwalia felt the country was likely to exceed 7.3 % growth rate this year as the fundamentals were quite strong and robust. The economy is bound to do much better this year than during the previous year, he said.
“Lowering of repo rate indicates RBI is satisfied that inflationary pressure is no longer a principal thing to worry about,” he felt and said the RBI was sending out a strong signal that the economy was poised to give a stimulus without any danger of leading to inflationary pressures.
MSDC offices have been opened in Bangalore and Gulbarga at a cost of Rs 40 crore each. The MSDCs at Gulbarga and Bangalore offer training to 1000 candidates a year.
A permanent campus of MSDC would be come up on two acres plot in Peenya here and on 20 acres in Gulbarga with modern amenities.
The Centre has been giving more thrust for skill development in the private sector and establishment of centres on PPP model.
The Skill Development Council headed by the Prime Minister monitor funding and functioning of skill development centres.
The Skill Development Corporation allocates corpus money to states.
The Centre has asked states to set up state level skill development council under the chairmanship of the Chief Ministers to achieve better results and ensure effective monitoring, Dr Ahluwalia said.
Union Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, who was largely instrumental in bringing the two MSDCs to Karnataka, said there are 50,460 industrial training institutes in the country and they have been offering training to 13.75 lakh students a year.
A total of 5,000 skill development centres would be set up across the country in the coming years, he said.
Karnataka’s Labour and Sericulture Minister B N Bache Gowda said the Government has decided to upgrade 160 industrial training institutes at a cost of Rs 280 crore.