He said that there was a limit to what big industries can offer jobs as well as the service sector despite coming into a prime.A day after the Union government set up a Cabinet committee on employment and skill development, Gujarat Chief Secretary J N Singh on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed the panel as during the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections youth were feeling about lack of employment and of not being engaged in the processes of national growth and national development.
Speaking at the inauguration of the first two-day annual Student Start-up Innovation Policy (SSIP) conference in Gandhinagar, Singh said, “During the entire (Lok Sabha) election process, youth was feeling that there is a lack of employment, lack of overall opportunities to get engaged in the national growth and national development. These are the few things that this Cabinet sub-committee (on employment and skill development) will look into.”
Pitching for start-ups as new job creators, Singh talked about a “bleak” job scenario a “limit” to what big industries can offer jobs as. “If you look at the overall perspective of what is likely to happen, whether the youth are getting employed as many times, we do feel that there is a bleak picture. The type of people are coming up, we feel very proud of a solid democratic dividend which a country very rarely has. India is passing through that democratic dividend phase, but are we actually going to harness that democratic dividend? Are we really in a position to take care and get the fullest advantage of the youth that we are having,” the chief secretary asked.
He said that there was a limit to what big industries can offer jobs as well as the service sector despite coming into a prime. But there’s a limit to the job creation and that is where the start-ups come in, he said, adding, “And as PM (Modi) keeps telling that the youth do not have to be job seekers but job givers. This is the what the youth of India and what the expectation from all of you is.”
Praising the entrepreneurship skills of Gujaratis, Singh said that the Gujarat government has been at the “forefront of pioneering policies and institutions which have gone a long way in making an innovation culture at the grassroots level. “In sync with various Central government schemes like Make In India, Start-Up India, Atal Innovation Mission, National Innovation Council, the Gujarat government has also taken very concrete steps to nurture, to support, to promote creativity, innovations and entrepreneurship,” he said.
The conference was organised the Education Department of the Government of Gujarat and was attended by Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe, Principal Secretary (Education), Govt of Gujarat Anju Sharma and Commissioner of Technical Education Avantika Singh Aulakh.
