Delhi, October, 2020.

Dr. MahendraNath Pandey, Hon'ble Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India, on behalf of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi ji and his own goodself congratulated PHD Chamber on its 115^th Annual Session. He praised the dynamic leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji and appreciated the extensive measures undertaken in tough COVID-times.

He said that Skill India is a concept that has been making a footprint both in and outside India. He said that all our ecosystem of education and skill departments in every state and district came together to contribute with their innovative ideas during the last 7 months under the COVID pandemic.

He opined for skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling, skill training centres, industry connect skilling and industry demand skilling are important for achieving the vision of a USD 5 trillion economy and making India self-reliant, going forward.

Dr. MahendraNath Pandey mentioned about the importance of Atmanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM), a database to bridge the gap of demand and supply of skilled workforce across the sectors.

With a vision to make India Skill capital of the world, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has worked towards making more than 5 crore people skilled in the country since 2014-15. Also, the Ministry signed various MOUs on skill development with different countries, worked on recognition of Indian skilled youth in the world, amplified apprenticeship programme, among others.

Dr. Pandey was affirmative that PHD Chamber could play a significant role in supporting the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the Government has a whole, in achieving its Skilled India mission and overall vision of high economic trajectory and self- reliant India, going forward.

Shri Sanjay Aggarwal, Senior Vice President, PHD Chamber, in his presidential remarks said that the education and skill development holds a crucial place for supporting India in its journey towards being Atmanirbhar. At this juncture, the focus of the Centre and the States should be to work together to increase the public investment in Education sector to atleast reach 6% of GDP at the earliest.

He also added that as compared to other developed and developing countries, India has a unique window of opportunity for another 20-25 years called the “demographic advantage”. This opportunity must be strategically perceived to achieve the Vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Shri Aggarwal emphasized upon importance of digitalization and said that it will play a big role in reshaping education, access to skill development, imparting knowledge on technological advancements, among others, in the coming years.

As part of the session, PHD Chamber launched the Coffee Table Book to mark the completion of 115 years of PHDCCI. The Coffee Table book comprises of Chamber’s achievements over the span of 115 years of existence.

Shri Pradeep Multani, Vice President, PHD Chamber, heartily thanked and expressed his sincere appreciation to Dr. MahendraNath Pandey ji, for his valuable time to join and share his valuable insights on the subject and giving us all the glimpse of the road ahead.

He said that education with skill development should continue with a longer term vision. He opined that realising the true potential of India’s young talent and polishing it further with skill upgradation will play an effective role in making India self-Reliant.

PHDCCI's 115th Annual Session has been supported by Vestige Marketing Pvt Ltd; Maruti Suzuki; RadicoKhaitan Ltd; SMC Global Securities Ltd; Paramount Communication Ltd; Multani Pharmaceuticals Ltd; DLF Ltd; JK Tyres; ApeejaySvran Group; M V Cotspin Ltd and DCM Shriram Industries Ltd. The other sponsors of the session were Hindalco Industries Ltd, Martin & Harris Pvt Ltd., Filatex India Ltd., Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd, Hindustan Tin Works Ltd, Alliance Advertising & Marketing Pvt. Ltd, OswalGreentech Ltd, Modern Auto Ltd and Bry-Air (Asia) Pvt. Ltd. Please follow the YouTube link for further updates- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8eyd0nh2EE