BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday said his government is committed to make Odisha a skill hub of the world and urged the industries and private sector to come forward to partner with it in the endeavour.
Inaugurating the first Odisha Skill Conclave 2023 at Kalinga Stadium here, the chief minister said Brand ‘Skilled-in-Odisha’ is now ready to shine across the globe. “The time has come when people are asking ‘Are you skilled or Skilled-in-Odisha’. However, we cannot achieve our goals without the active participation of the private sector,” Naveen said while urging industries and industry leaders to join the initiative.
Stating that Odisha government is committed to the cause of skill development, he said several initiatives including transforming the lives of 70 lakh women Mission Shakti members by supporting them to become small and medium enterprises and promoting startups and nano-unicorns have already been launched in the state.
Besides, the state government has also made budgetary provision of Rs 100 crore this year for a new scheme called ‘Nua Odisha’ to train one lakh youth in future technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, augmented reality-virtual reality, data science, 3D printing and others.
“We all should work together to develop policies and programmes that not only promote skill development but also ensure those skills are recognised and valued in the job market. Collaborative efforts by the centre, state, industry, academia and civil society is needed to achieve the objective,” he stated.
“Today’s event is a testimony to the chief minister’s vision for making Odisha a sandbox of innovation and building a reputation of the state’s capital to become a global benchmark in transformational technology and skilling,” said Odisha Skill Development Authority chairman Subroto Bagchi.
Chief secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena said the mega skill conclave will be a huge platform for deliberation, convergence and collaboration among policy makers, industry leaders, academicians and students.
“The event intends to bring all the stakeholders of skilling ecosystem under one roof for churning out ideas and giving a direction to the skilling community,” said SDTE secretary Usha Padhee. FICCI president Subhrakant Panda said the idea of Odisha Skill Conclave 2023 is to invest in the people of Odisha and take skilling to a new level.