The Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu today called for mandatory inclusion of skilling initiatives at school level saying "schooling and skilling must go together". Addressing the gathering after inaugurating Residential Skilling Center of Deshpande Foundation in Hubbali today, he said that not enough attention was paid in the past to skilling in the education system and called for revisiting the education policy to make it compulsory for imparting skills to school students.
There was a need to introduce vocational education in the curriculum to create an ecosystem that produces skilled manpower, he observed.
Mr Naidu said that the New Education Policy must address both skilling and scaling and added that it was the duty of the Government of India and all the States to ensure that school children were imparted skills in all spheres.
Observing that agriculture needed a multi-pronged approach from providing infrastructure to ensuring access to market for agricultural commodities, the Vice President asserted that freebies and loan waivers were not going solve the problems faced by farmers and permanent solutions were needed.
Expressing his confidence that the Indian economy would bounce back if the reforms were continued at the same pace, Mr Naidu appealed to the industry and the corporate sector to join hands with the Universities and academic institutions for strengthening R & D and preparing youngsters to adapt to 21st century requirements.
Calling for creating an ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship to thrive, Mr Naidu also urged the youth to make good use of initiatives like Skill India and acquire knowledge and skills relating to new technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Mr Naidu said that with 65% of our population below 35 years of age, India was a young nation and has the unique opportunity to serve as a global human resource hub. This vast human resource pool would drive the expansion of the knowledge-based economy, he added.
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