Large population our asset: NSDC chief

LUCKNOW: More than 12 lakh people have received skill development training in Uttar Pradesh till date, said Jayant Krishna, executive director and chief operating officer, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) on Thursday.

Krishna was speaking at a session on ‘Skill development–Leveraging demographic dividend of Uttar Pradesh at Investors’ Summit. Addressing the gathering, Krishna said: “Uttar Pradesh is India’s third highest GDP state with a balanced mix of agriculture, services and manufacturing sectors and it continues to be the country’s largest consumer market.”

“Its large population offers an abundant opportunity to enable its citizens gainfully contribute an increasingly higher value to the economy,” Krishna added.

Commenting on UP Skill Development Mission programme, Krishna said: “Till date more than 12 lakh people have been trained in the ongoing skill development programme in the state. Uttar Pradesh gets set to optimally harness its human resources by way of imparting skills to them appropriately. The state can look forward to reap a rich demographic dividend given the acute paucity of welltrained people all across the

state and beyond in India and abroad.”

Also present on the occasion, Bhuvnesh Kumar, secretary, Skill Development, state government, said: “In addition to a renewed focus on agro-processing and manufacturing sectors, UP has several traditional clusters like carpet weaving in Bhadohi, leather in Kanpur and Agra, brassware in Moradabad, silk weaving in Varanasi and Chikankari in Lucknow.”

Chetan Chauhan, minister for skill development, state government, said: “As the services sector now contributes significantly to the state’s economy, focus is also on IT, hospitality, tourism, retail, financial services and healthcare sector.” Manish Sabharwal, chairman, TeamLease, also addressed the gathering.