New Delhi, February, 2022.

The Budget 2022 for the education and skilling sector rightly focused on expanding reach, improving quality education, building capacity, and strengthening the digital skill ecosystem. Further, to brainstorm and discuss ways for effective implementation of initiatives announced in the Budget, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and the Ministry of Education, along with other ministries, is organising a session in Skill India webinar themed- ‘Towards Fostering Stronger Industry-Skill Linkage,’ on Monday, February 21, 2022 from 12:15 PM to 2:15 PM. The webinar will be attended by the government officials, industry experts and representatives of key associations. The session is a part of a series of seminars being inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He will be addressing the first webinar themed on ‘Digital University: Making World Class Higher Education Accessible for All’.

The Skill India webinar will be co-chaired by Shri Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Shri Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, MSDE, and Shri Anurag Jain, Secretary, DPIIT. The panellists for the session are Shri N.S Kalsi, Chairman, National Council for Vocational Education & Training (NCVET); Shri Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Shri Manish Sabharwal, Vice Chairman, Teamlease Services. The session will be moderated by Mr. Ved Mani Tiwari, COO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

During the session, broader aspects on strengthening the skill ecosystem by enhancing digital skills will be discussed. The panellists will share their views on the recent announcements made by our finance minister in the Budget 2022 including deliberations on DESH stack that aims to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill themselves through digital training. Further, the session will cover aspects of successful implementation of National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) targeted to fulfil the dynamic industry needs, expansion of emerging technologies and training through Drone Shakti scheme, helping increase domestic manufacturing and creating employment. The facets related to PM Gati Shakti programme will also be discussed during the discourse. The session will also put spotlight on sectors like Tourism and Logistics.

The participants who will join the interactive mode of the session are:

1. Col Pankaj Fotedar, COO, Geokno
2. Dr. Shankar Goenka, Managing Director of WOW Factors India
3. Rachit Bhatnagar, CEO – Aerospace and Aviation SSC
4. Capt Gaurav Nath, CEO ClearSkies Aviation OPC Pvt Ltd
5. Smit Shah, Director of Partnerships, Drone Federation of India
6. Sujith Nair, Beckn Foundation
7. Anand Gautam, EkStep Foundation
8. Sujeet Suryawanshi, Protean eGov Technologies Limited
9. Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur
10. Dr. Satender Arya, CEO - Agriculture Skill Council of India

The participating ministries and departments in the webinar are- The Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education (MoE), Dept. of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Skill Development &  Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Dept. of Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade, Dept. of Telecom, Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG-N), Ministry of Tourism, Dept of Economic Affairs, Academia and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.