Govt unveils major thrust to Skill India

New Delhi: Laying out the objective of skilling one crore youth over the next three years, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday announced a raft of measures including setting up 1,500 multi-skill training institutes and National Board for Skill Development Certification in Budget.

Unveiling the Budget proposals for 2016-17 in Parliament, Jaitley described "education, skills and job creation" to make India a knowledge-based and productive society as one of the 'nine pillars' that will transform the country.

Jaitley earmarked a sum of Rs 1,700 crore for setting up 1,500 multi-skill training institutes in the country and scaling up Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna.

"We have decided to set up National Board for Skill Development Certification in partnership with the industry and academia. We propose to further scale up Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna to skill one crore youth over the next three years," Jaitley said.

He further proposed to exempt service tax on services provided under Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana and services provided by Assessing Bodies empanelled by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Besides, the weighted deduction for expenditure on skill, development projects under section 35CCD of the Income-tax Act will continue up to April 1, 2020.

"It is proposed to amend section 35CCD of the Income-tax Act so as to provide that the weighted deduction of 150 per cent shall be available up to financial year 2019-20 (assessment year 2020-21).

"However, the deduction under the said section shall be restricted to 100 per cent from financial year 2020-21 (Assessment Year 2021-22)," Jaitley said.

The minister said entrepreneurship education and training will be provided in 2,200 colleges, 300 schools, 500 government ITIs and 50 vocational training centres through massive open online courses.

Terming the Budget for skill development as "highly encouraging", Union Skills Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the 1,500 multi skill raining institutes will basically be the new generation ITIs set up in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.

"So far we have just had standalone government or private ITIs. These will be set up in those blocks and districts of the country, which are yet to focus on skill development. We are also certain and committed to achieve our target of skilling one crore youth over the next three years under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)," Rudy said.