Gadkari stresses on taking skill development to rural parts

Nagpur, Nov 10 (KNN) Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Nitin Gadkari has stressed on taking skill development to rural parts of the country.

While speaking after releasing “Skill Table Book” through video conferencing recently, the Minister said, ''Today, skill development is very important for the country. At the same time, skills in different fields must also reach the rural as well as backward regions of the country.''

''This will lead to development and create employment opportunities in rural, agricultural and backward areas,” Gadkari added.

Gadkari further said that these days, research, entrepreneurship, science, technology, skills and successful experiments are knowledge in real terms.

''Time has come to transform this knowledge into assets. Therefore, skilled manpower is the need of the hour for the country and different industries as well. Skill development is one of the ways for atma nirbhar India,” Gadkari stated.

Stressing that skill development plays a major role in micro, small and medium enterprises, Gadkari said that at present MSME contribution to the country's GDP stands at 30 per cent and generated 11 crore employment opportunities.

''But today, the country’s rural economy is just Rs 80,000 crore. Our target is to increase it to 5 lakh crore in the next two years. We have tremendous capacity now. The government has taken a slew of measures in the last few weeks to support MSME,'' the Minister concluded.