Govt to spend Rs 30,000 cr for new age jobs

ON TRACK: Govt is taking quick measures before lack of skilled personnel shuts the door on India's reform story.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Television, for politicians with a vision

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Lack of traditional skills in India causes alarm
• Indian economy desperate for new-age professionals
• Private health sector unhealthy: PM

Keywords: Planning Commission, Manmohan Singh

New Delhi: India has progressed at an overwhelming speed in terms of new age professions but with the blistering pace has come shortages in trained manpower. However, now the UPA Government has come up with a mammoth plan to deal with this problem.

The country is desperately in need of various skilled professionals like old age care personnel, health technicians, nurses, automobile technicians, computer service staff, gaming and animation designers, and even hotel concierges and bellboys before a lack of skilled personnel shut the door on India's reform story.

Now, the Planning Commission is giving the finishing touches to the National Skill Development Mission, which will train people to do these 21st century jobs.

Agreeing with the Government’s estimate, cardiologist Dr Tushar Roy said, “Yes, definitely there is a shortage of nurses. And the Government’s estimate of one million nurses by 2012 is quite valid.”

According to the numbers, around 50,000 new old age care professionals also need to join in every year.

“We are talking about 80 million elders in India right now. And the number gets extrapolated if you see the number of elders who need assisted care at home,” Chief Executive Officer of Helpage India, Oommen George said.

The push for this plan is coming from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself. About Rs 30,000 crore will be spent in the next five years starting Budget 2008 for the project, which took five months from its announcement for the scheme to be fleshed out.

“Last year I had spoken about vocational education. Now this mission is reaching its final stages. Very soon this will be implemented,” Singh said recently.

With many ministries involved, the Planning Commission will be in the driver's seat for this plan. It is the only scheme, which allows the Prime Minister to marry his new age vision with the aam admi approach, and no doubt he is extremely enthusiastic about this plan. This, he believes, is a practical orientation of education and it allows job creation to go hand in hand with job requirement.