National web portal to ensure all vacancies announced by the government are accessible to people all over the country
Employment exchanges, where unemployed people can register for jobs, will finally get to move with the times and get a makeover. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today announced a new project for their modernisation in the Union Budget for 2009-10. It will be done, he said, in partnership with the private sector and would enable a job seeker to register online from anywhere and approach any employment exchange in the country.
Under the project, a national web portal with common software will be developed which will link all the 970 government-run employment exchanges in the country. As a result, all vacancies announced by the government will be accessible to people all over the country at one go. There are about 50 million job seekers registered with employment exchanges across the country at the moment.
The common website would contain not only data on job requirements of the industry and the various vacancies available but also availability of skilled persons. The scheme is interlinked with the ongoing Skill Development Mission of the Labour Ministry under which short-term as well as long-term courses are being offered to people to equip them with various marketable skills.
It will help youth get placement while enabling the industry procure required skills on real time basis, the finance minister said in his budget speech today.
The budget has allocated funds for skill development and vocational education. It also talked of India's demographic advantage and, with a view to convert it into gains, it sought to give a huge push to skilling and vocational education. The allocation for setting up of and upgrade of polytechnics under the Skill Development Mission has also been increased to Rs 495 crore. The existing Mission in Education through ICT has got its allocation increased to Rs 900 crore. Higher education has also got the Government's attention with a jump of Rs 2,000 crore over the interim budget estimate.
The budget has allocated Rs 827 crore for setting up a Central University in each uncovered state, and Rs 2,113 crore for the Indian Institute of Technology and National Institutes of Technology. But, on the other hand, the inclusive agenda of the Government misses such inclusive elements like open schooling which continues to get a measly Rs 15 crore which it has been getting in the previous years.
In the case of female literacy, the Government has announced a National Mission for Female Literacy which aims to to reduce by the half the level of female literacy in the next three years amongst minorities and other target groups. No funds for the scheme were mentioned in the Budget.