The recruitment and the HR industry welcomed the budget announcement on the National Skills Mission and Student Financial Aid Authority to fund student skill development.

The proposed ‘Skill India’ programme and ‘National Skill Mission’, if executed well, will help youth become employable. Additional funds for MNREGA and initiatives like Make in India will provide platform for employing this skilled workforce, Vasu Saksena, CEO, MeritTrac, said.

For over a decade, the importance of enhancing employability in India has been highlighted to leverage the demographic dividend by which the country will have over 850 million Indians in the working age group by 2020. This will account for 28 per cent of global workforce. “We are glad that employability of youth has been emphasised in this budget,” he said.

According to Rituparna Chakraborty, President, Indian Staffing Federation, Co-Founder & Senior Vice-President, TeamLease, by giving employees the choice to contribute to PF and EPFO or not, and allowing them to choose if the the employers’ contribution goes to EPFO or to NPS, and opting out of ESIC , the Finance Minister has created incentives for youth to join the formal sector.

Kamal Karanth, Managing Director, Kelly Services, said the budget gave a definite roadmap to realise the Make In India campaign by announcing schemes for skill development and job creation. In addition to laying emphasis on creating employment opportunities, it has adequately touched upon creation of jobs for the rural population and minorities.

The setting up of AIIMS, IITs and IT hubs across several States will help address the huge demand for IT jobs in India, he said.

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