New Delhi, February, 2023.

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) is organizing a seminar tomorrow at Hyatt Regency on building capacities among Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) partner nations through skill training and nurturing a new generation of entrepreneurs. At the seminar, India will present its best practices on the digital transformation across different sectors in areas of health, education, skilling, IT and more, with special focus on sectors that helped cater to the welfare challenges faced by the masses during the pandemic.

In addition, there will be a session highlighting Digital Transformation and linkages between industry and Skill based education, to create advocacy about the achievements and learnings in the category, across different sectors such as health, education, skilling, IT etc., which has helped to cater to the welfare challenges faced by the masses during the COVID pandemic. The session will also start a dialogue on how the institutions need to be aligned and stakeholders to be engaged for achieving digital integration across SCO partner nations.

This will give India an opportunity to share best practices in capacity building and inspire other SCO member countries to take up similar programs. The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organization comprising eight members viz China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan strengthening bilateral relations and regional security.

The focus of the seminar will also be to strengthen the capacities of aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses through skill-based capacity building on the usage of IT platforms, emerging small business entrepreneurship initiatives and trends. The SCO was established in 2001 and India began its association with it as an observer state in 2005 before becoming a member state in 2017. During the 1^stmeeting on 17^thSeptember 2021 in Dushanbe, the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi spoke about India's experience of using digital technologies in its development programs and offered to share open-source solutions with other SCO members.

Amid the current global political churn, India is witnessing a surge in the demand in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning, Blockchain Management, Data Analytics and Robotics. It has increased the demand for higher-order cognition and socio-emotional skills, prompting workers to harness their true potential through adequate skilling, upskilling and reskilling avenues. As a result, mass-scale digitization efforts are being made in creating new education, skilling, and entrepreneurial ecosystems. India is also committed to building a globally competitive workforce to make India the Skill Hub of the World.