Speech

Speech prepared for Mr. N Kumar, Vice-Chairman, Sanmar Group

Prof P Satyanarayanan, Vice- Chairman, SRM University

Mr. Pachamuthu, Chairman, SRM University

Mr Kathirvelu , Deputy Director, Employment and Training, Government of Tamil Nadu.

Respected Dignitaries, participants, media friends and Ladies and gentlemen

It a great moment for me to do the welcome address and the theme note for the Inaugural session of 20th CII Regional World Skills Competition. Skill Development is a topic dearer to my heart and I feel Skill Development as an imperative factor to maintain the competitiveness of the Indian Economy.

Realizing the importance of Skills in ensuring a sustainable and equitable growth, CII is working with the Central and the state governments on Skill Development to help release the latent entrepreneurial energies of the people in this country

Sustainability of India's growth story would critically depend on how the country addressed the shortages of skills and the need for skill enhancement and challenges in Skill Development were bigger and needed faster execution as the country was growing at a rapid pace. India needs to re-engineer its educational institutions and strengthen their infrastructure for effective Skill Development. Mapping of skill gaps, identifying training needs and investing wisely in Skills is an agenda for action for all the key stakeholders closely involved with the Skill Development initiative in the country. Developing the skills of the youth in the country also ensures the participation of people in the economic growth which will ultimately lead to inclusiveness in the growth.

This year the competition is being organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with the Directorate General of Employment & Training, Ministry of Labour, Government of India. This year CII is organizing the competition with the objective to promote skill development programmes in the Industry and to Benchmark and scale up Indian Skills at the Global Level. The regional level competition will give an opportunity for the companies to compete at the regional level and also an opportunity to take part in the world skills competition in Canada in 2009. CII has been actively facilitating the skill development imitative in the country and this year CII took the lead in enrolling the country as a member of the World Skills International, the organizers of the world Skills competition. CII also took a delegation comprising of the Government officials and senior Industry leaders to Japan for this year’s World Skills competition. In Japan Indian companies participated in some of the trades and were able to showcase the Indian Skills to a Global Audience. In Japan India was able to develop strategic partnerships with selected corporate, government and non-government organisations to further understand and learn about the Global benchmarks in Skill Development. Over the coming years ,I feel India will be dominating the World Skills competition and will be able to standardise and benchmark Indian skills at these competitions.

CII has been actively working with the central and the state Government in rolling out long term Skill Development strategies. CII took upon itself the task of "Making India the Skills Capital of the World". CII conceived and launched the Skills Development Initiative in 2004, to become a catalyst in creating a skills movement in the country. The objective is to generate social inclusiveness and provide the socially and economically vulnerable population a chance to be part of the mainstream economy. Skills Development Initiative aims at harnessing India's 'Demographic Dividend' to make the people employable for employment/self employment in India or abroad. For tangible benefits, the training provided is necessarily benchmarked on international standards. CII views skills as a 'global currency'. CII has registered a Skills Development Trust with a Skills Development Fund and created an over arching CII Skills and Knowledge Mission to guide the functioning of the Skills Development Initiative.

I also take this opportunity to thank the host SRM University especially its Chairman, Mr. Pachumauthu and Prof P Satyanaryanan , the Vice chancellor for their proactiveness in partnering with CII in organizing the event. The staff and the Management of this amazing University were very forthcoming when CII first discussed about having the regional competition at SRM University. I should appreciate the leadership of the management for providing world Class infrastructure and serene and a peaceful environment which is a prerequisite for innovation, learning and knowledge transmission.

We have an eminent panel of judges to evaluate the candidates over a panel of 4 days and this competition I believe will help in showcasing the strength of the Indian Industry scaling new global benchmarks. I also take this opportunity to wish the competition a grand success and the participants the very best.

Thank you