India is known to possess a significant demographic dividend due to its large and growing population in the 15 to 29 year age group estimated to be upwards of 600 million currently. This large working age population can make a significant contribution to the country’s growth provided it is equipped to be productive. Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development of country. For growing of economy, India requires a large and skilled workforce. However, the lack of quality trainers and training institutes has created roadblocks to growth. Skills shortage is evident in every sector of the economy. India’s training infrastructure which mainly consists of Government ITIs and ITCs currently has a capacity of 3.1 million seats and is vastly inadequate to meet the diverse skill requirements of the population. While almost 90% of the 450 million jobs in India require vocational skills, currently only 7% of youth (15 to 29 years) receive any kind of formal or informal vocational training. Taking cognizance of this deficit between demand and supply, the Government has set an ambitious plan of training 500 million individuals by 2022, translating to training 42 million a year.

Government has already launched “Make in India” campaign with an aim to turn the country into a global manufacturing hub. Recognizing the importance of skill development and entrepreneurship in the country, the new Government has laid highest priority on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

To discuss on current scenario on Skill Development and catalyze the initiative by recognizing the outstanding work under PPP (Public Private Partnership) in skill development, ASSOCHAM in partnership with various Ministries of Government of India is organizing a “Summit-cum-Awards on Skilling India” on 20th January, 2015 at Hotel Le-Meridien, New Delhi. Ministry of Skill development and Entrepreneurship is supporting our this summit. We have also approached several Ministers and Secretaries from various Ministries to address this summit. We expect over 200 participants in this summit.