File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The government has set a target of training 40.2 crore people under the new National Policy for Skill Development by 2022. This is slated to be unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 15.PM Modi will also launch the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana on the same day, at a mega event to mark the World Youth Skills Day.The previous National Skill Policy, which was announced in 2009 during the UPA regime, had targeted skilling 50 crore people by 2022 but the present government has revised it downwards."Target of the government is to train 402 million people by 2022. Fifty four per cent of that is in agriculture sector, that leaves us with 215 million people," Union Skills Development & Entrepreneurship Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.The minister said this after the Ministry of Skills Development & Entrepreneurship today inked an agreement with Ministry of Steel & Mines for training of its workforce."402 million people are already working somewhere, that has to come under the purview of Recognition of Prior Learning. Incremental requirement (of workforce by 2022) is 112 million which is being assessed and given out sector-wise by ministries," the minister added.Mr Rudy said the Prime Minister will formally launch the Rashtriya Kaushal Vikas Yojana and the National Skills Mission on July 15 under which all the pacts are being inked with various ministries and their PSUs."This agreement is an overarching agreement which will provide the mandate to PSUs belonging to Ministry of Steel & Mines to work with subsidiaries related to Skills Ministry."All the public sector enterprises under the Ministry of Steel and Mines will be involved in this.This would involve utilisation of spare infrastructure under the PSUs, training manpower and financial resources for training."The specific modalities will be worked out between the concerned public sector undertakings for locating the infrastructure, resources, manpower, training requirement and identifying the people for Recognition of Prior Learning," Mr Rudy said.Union Minister of Steel & Mines Narendra Singh Tomar said: "We will try to identify the gaps in PSUs in the steel & mines sector. We will also direct the PSUs to set aside a sum for funding skill development activities from their CSR Budget".Secretary in the Steel Ministry Rakesh Singh informed that there are 9 PSUs under the Steel Ministry and National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) will sign individual MoUs with these PSUs."The first such MoU will be signed between Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and NSDC on Monday. Under this MoU, 92,000 regular and 90,000 contractual workers of SAIL will be trained," Mr Singh said.Mr Rudy had earlier termed as "impossible" the target of skilling 50 crore people by 2022, set by the UPA government.Secretary in the Skills Development & Entrepreneurship Ministry Sunil Arora said agreements are being signed with Ministries like Petroleum, Heavy Industries, Coal, Power, Railways, Health, Chemicals, among others, to train their workforce."For the first time such an exercise is being undertaken by the government, possibly the largest in the world. This will enable us to identify skilled workforce which has stagnated to 3.5 per cent, by this exercise we will at least be able to take it to 10 per cent," Mr Rudy said.Besides, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral RK Dhowan also called upon Mr Rudy today, and the two discussed skill development roadmap for the Indian Navy."I have been talking to the armed forces and the Defence Minister in partnering the skill development programme. I think for the first time the Indian armed forces would be seeing massive skill recognition programme which they have already cultivated over the years of training to make them outcome-oriented and compatible for employment," Mr Rudy told PTI.Both Rashtriya Kaushal Vikas Yojana and National Policy for Skill Development, 2015 were recently approved by the Union Cabinet in separate meetings.The National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015 is the country's first integrated national policy for developing skills and promoting entrepreneurship on a large scale.The Policy acknowledges the need for an effective roadmap for promotion of entrepreneurship as the key to a successful skills strategy.The vision of the policy is to create an ecosystem of empowerment by skilling on a large scale at speed with high standards and to promote a culture of innovation-based entrepreneurship which can generate wealth and employment so as to ensure sustainable livelihoods for all citizens.The policy has four thrust areas, an official statement said, adding that it addresses key obstacles to skilling, including low aspirational value, lack of integration with formal education, lack of focus on outcomes, low quality of training infrastructure and trainers.Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is the flagship outcome-based skill training scheme of the new Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE).The objective of this skill certification and reward scheme is to enable and mobilise a large number of Indian youth to take up outcome-based skill training and become employable and earn their livelihood.