Question : World Bank Assistance for Skill Development Programme

(a) whether the World Bank has agreed to fund India''s Skill Development Programme;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the areas identified for mobilization of the said fund;

(c) the estimated number of people who are likely to be skilled and the time by which the money agreed is likely to be disbursed;

(d) whether National Skill Development Agency had concluded that a huge amount would be required in the next five years to achieve the target fixed for skill development and if so, the details thereof; and

(e) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to achieve the target fixed?

(a) to (c) World Bank has funded the Vocational Training Improvement Project, ‘Upgradation of 400 Government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). The project envisages upgradation of 400 Government ITIs across the Country. The scheme also includes enhancement of knowledge and skills of ITI instructors, strengthening facilities in 14 central institutes, strengthening curriculum development, reforms, capacity building. Key institutional reforms introduced under the project are constitution of Institute Management Committee (IMC) at ITI level with the chairmanship from the industry. Under the schemes, Rs. 1605 crore has been utilized till September, 2015 out of which 83% has been disbursed by the World Bank. Approx. 70,000 trainees are trained annually under the scheme started from December, 2007 with the closing date as September, 2016.

(d) & (e) No, Madam. National Skill Development Agency has not made any estimate of funds required for meeting the target fixed for skill development. However, in order to understand the sectoral and geographical spread of skill requirement/gaps and incremental human resource requirement across the sectors, studies have been undertaken by the Government through National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a Public Private Partnership (PPP) entity. As per the study, employment opportunities in India would increase from 461.1 million in 2013 to 581.9 million in 2022, across the 24 sectors, pointing at an incremental human resource requirement of approximately 120.8 million. Considering the overlap in the human resource requirement across a number of sectors, the unique number for incremental demand would be 109.7 million by 2022, wherein the top 10 sectors would account for 80% of this requirement.

As an effort to align the skill development initiatives with the incremental human resource requirement, Prandhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) has been launched by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. The scheme has a target to cover 24 lakh persons under skill development training which would be done based on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry led standards.