The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved the stipendiary support of ₹3,054 crore to apprentices who undergo apprenticeship training under the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) of Ministry of Education for the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26 (upto March 31, 2026).
“Approximately 9 lakh apprentices will be trained by industry and commercial organisations. NATS is the Central Government’s scheme that has been demonstrated to enhance the employability of students who have successfully completed the apprenticeship training,” said the official release.
The apprentices who have completed graduate and diploma programmes in engineering, humanities, science and commerce will be given stipends of ₹9,000/- and ₹8,000/- per month respectively, it added.
Approved expenditure
The government has approved an expenditure of around ₹3,000 crore during the next five years. The NATS will provide apprenticeship in the emerging areas under ‘Production Linked Incentive’ (PLI) such as mobile manufacturing, medical devices manufacturing etc. The scheme will also be preparing skilled manpower for connectivity/logistics industry sectors, identified under GatiShakti.
Meanwhile, the CCEA also gave nod to the umbrella scheme “Ocean Services, Modelling, Application, Resources and Technology (O-SMART)” of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, for implementation during the period from 2021-26 at an overall cost of ₹2,177 crore.
The research and technology development pertaining to oceans in India was initiated by the Department of Ocean Development (DoD), that was set up in 1981 and later merged with the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and continuing since then.
It has also approved the formation of a company (special purpose vehicle) to privatise the electricity distribution business in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, sale of equity shares of the newly formed company to highest bidder and formation of trust(s) for serving employees’ liabilities.