Note ban finished parallel economy, says Sidharth Nath

LUCKNOW Uttar Pradesh MSME Minister Sidharth Nath Singh said on Friday that the country was passing through a phase of “disruptive economy” and the slowdown being reported in news these days was a result of that.

“Demonetisation finished the parallel economy but also brought in some disruptions,” said Singh while speaking at the UP Skill Summit and MSME Meet organised here by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry along with other stakeholding agencies.

“There are talks of unemployment but we have a different situation before us. What we are seeing is structural unemployment. People are still looking for ‘9 to 5 jobs’ but this mindset needs to change now,” said the minister.

He also said there were positive aspects in the situation too, with more jobs being generated in some sectors. Mahendra Nath Pandey, minister for skill development and entrepreneurship, said the ‘Labour Market Information System’ would help categorise data according to industry and geography. “We have already started working on it. The system will be rolled out soon,” he said.

“Over five million youths were trained under the central government’s initiatives and more than 1.2 million got jobs. Earlier, skill providers used to track job sustainability for three months but now, it has been increased to six months,” he said.

SKILL INCLUSION IN SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Singh said the NCERT curriculum needed to be modified to include ‘skill’ as a subject in schools. “This will help children start thinking beyond 9 to 5 jobs,” he said, adding, “We can begin by including a chapter in the curriculum.” Earlier Sanjay Aggarwal, senior vice-president of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, welcomed the audience. Member Gaurav Prakash raised the issue of skill gap and also highlighted the efforts of the government and industry bodies in reducing it.