The Advisor to Prime Minister, Mr S. Ramadorai, said that a national initiative to have rural broad-band connections in three or five in 2,50,000 panchayats is being launched soon.
In an interaction with the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Mr Ramadorai said technology has a key role to play in rural development.
Referring to the NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), he said that efforts were on to amend it to include skill development without compromising the original intent of the scheme itself. He said, “we are touch with the Rural Development Ministry and we will seek the help of Andhra Pradesh to find out what is coming in the say of skill development extension to NREGA.”
Apprenticeship
Mr Ramadorai, formerly with the TCS felt that the next important factor is apprenticeship. “Most of the companies are shy to implement the apprenticeship programmes because the Apprenticeship Act comes in the way and we are in dialogue with the Ministry of Labour and Employment to ensure that there are no restrictions or impediments in taking apprentices. Most likely the Ministry of Labour and Employment is prodding on this and we are trying to get the Act amended and once it is done, the demand side will open up,” he said.
The Chief Minister today said that Andhra Pradesh is happy to be the campaign State for National-level Mission for Employment generation. He said the State would dovetail the National Mission and would integrate all departments concerned to achieve an ambitious goal of creating 5 lakh jobs a year.
The Adviser to the Prime Minister and his team had a detailed review meeting with the Chief Minister, School Education Minister, Chief Secretary and other top officials at Secretariat today.
Employability
The Chief Minister said the State is now concentrating on the employability of even inter and 10th passed students along with engineering and ITI students. He said we have to create employment in rural areas itself and prevent migration to urban centres lest it becomes overcrowded. The Chief Minister said training and skill development is a must during education to make the youth employable and the State is concentrating on that.
He said that credit support is also equally important for vocational training. There are no credit support available now. Students will not opt for this unless they get credit support facilities with low interest rates that are acceptable with flexibility in repayment. “We are constituting a committee with myself as head, which will include representatives from Nabard, banks, Ministry of Finance and PMO and Planning Commission.”