Raj Nehru
India is marching ahead to its goal of becoming a developed nation, but many important milestones are yet to be achieved to further this goal. The most important of these is skill. India can regain its glory in the whole world due to her skills. The fact that our country has moved forward from skills to acquiring new skills and additional skills, it is going to take the nation forward at a swifter pace. The Central Government has made it very evident in this year’s Union Budget that it is committed to make serious efforts towards making India count in the ranks of developed nations by developing education, technology, digital, skill, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated 1 lakh 12 thousand 899 crore rupees for the sake of education in the general budget 2023-24, whereas in the previous budget this amount was one lakh four thousand 278 crore rupees. An additional amount of 8000 has increased in one go. This effort will not only raise the standard of level of education in the country, but will also propel education to an unprecedented level. The damage that was caused by Covid will also mitigate the ill effects of Covid. The Government will provide additional aid for this purpose. For this the Government will spend additional money. The digital plateform will be invested heavily upon. The digital technology will act as a pioneer in developing India further and skill based education will be the most important cog in the wheel of this strategy.
The Government will prioritise industries and will push up skill development by connecting students with digital technique via skill oriented education. This will, further, open up the floodgates of market to them resulting into a skill wise developed India.
The Central Budget has provided historical provisions in propelling a skilled based education system. This time the budget has kept skill oriented education in center stage. This effort will, eventually, lead to unprecedented development in the field of education in the coming times and will set the tone for a bright future. The ‘Amrit-Pidhi’ (Generation) will become the base of futuristic India. The emphasis on skill development will play a pivotal role in creating ‘Amrit Pidhi’ and will also lay down the foundation stone for a Futuristic India. The Budget has prioritised ‘Industrial – Partnership’ as well as has stressed upon ‘On the Job Training Program’. These efforts by the Government can be viewed as visionary efforts to step up towards a skilled India. The Vishwakarma Skill University has already done successful efforts in this sphere. The duel model of ‘On the Job Training Program’ and ‘Industrial Partnership Program’ has yielded fruitful results.
Government will set up new courses under ‘Pradhan Mantri Koshal Vikas Yojna.’ This primarily includes Artificial intelligence, Coding, Robotics, Mectronix, Internet of things, 3D printing, Drone and other soft skills. All these courses will fulfill the purpose and needs of futuristic India and futuristic world. We are the youngest nation in the world still we can’t serve the need of the market untill we are adequately skilled. This program will serve a dual purpose of generating employment as well as serving the market with skilled labour. It will not only save the logistic of productivity but will also ensure the quality of the productivity. New paths in creating employment have been stepped up by the current government. If one talks exclusively about drones then there are million of opportunities for skilled people. The Government is eyeing drone based education in particular. Shree Vishwakarma Skill University is also introducing drone based courses so that lucrative careers can be obtained and the skill of our youth can be manoeuvred properly. These are futuristic areas of employment that have unlimited possibilities.
Government will lay emphasis on industrial development as well as skill based education to initiate the efforts of ‘Dekho Apna Desh’. It is imperative to increase skilled industrial workers. These efforts will not only produce new employment but will also will change the perception of youth towards self employment. Industries play a key role in our financial sector. Central Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made special provision for industrial development. The Government has made special efforts to develop skill based digital training program. PM Vishwakarma Koshal Samman has been initiated by the Government to increase the tempo of advanced skill training and modern digital training. It really is a commendable effort. The Central budget of 2023-24 reflects the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which he envisioned a developed india via promoting a skill based education. Haryana led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has become the first state to open a state level skilled university. Shree Vishwakarma Skill University is serving as a model for other institutions. The coming times belong to skill, techniques, innovations and experiments. People who do not connect with this scenario will lag behind. Thats why the Central Government has endeavoured to adopt an inclusive policy. This budget will open up new floodgates for experiment based education via promoting skill, technology, digital and apprenticeship.
(The author is Vice Chancellor Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, Palwal)