The World Bank has offered India Rs 480 crore to boost the country’s plans to train 150 million skilled workers by 2022. Proposed to be granted under the National Skill Development Fund (NSDF), this is under consideration of the Planning Commission.
According to a World Bank official, the move has been cleared by the board of NSDF, co-promoted by the Union finance ministry, with the mandate to involve the private sector in training workers for 21 focus sectors. “The government has to now approach us formally, once they are through with it,” the official said. “This will be mainly for the capacity-building of the NSDC and also to bring in international experience to its table.”
“We are looking into the proposal,” confirmed Sudha Pillai, member-secretary of the high-powered body. Till date, the government has put in Rs 1,500 crore in the NSDF (Rs 1000 crore while announcing the formation of the NSDC in 2008-09, and Rs 500 crore in the 2011-12 Budget). Using this, the NSDC Board has approved 46 proposals for funding (38 training proposals and eight Sector Skill Council initiatives), where the total fund commitment is nearly Rs 1,200 crore. The offer is important as the NSDC is left with only Rs 300 crore to play around.
Managing director and chief executive officer Dilip Chenoy said the bank had decided to make this contribution following several rounds of discussions. “There are a lot of offers from multilateral and bilateral organisations. Our job is just to manage the funds and involve the private sector in this,” he added.