Essential to equip youth with new age skills: Pradhan
Bhubaneswar, Oct 6 : Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Saturday said it is essential to equip the youth with new age skills to meet the requirements of the market.
India is a country of young people and its demographic dividend is our asset, while the challenge is to map the aspirations of our youth with the opportunities, the Union Skill Development Minister said while chairing a workshop 'Closing the Skills Gap and Future of Jobs' here.
"Our education system has given knowledge and empowerment, it must also equip our youth with employability.
It is important that we connect young generation with the new age skills. Demand mapping is key to keep up with the requirements of the market," Pradhan said.
Co-organised by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and World Economic Forum (WEF), the objective of this day-long workshop was to identify pathways for human-centered and sustainable growth and to reflect upon coherent and coordinated strategies to proactively prepare for and shape the future of work.
Noting that inclusion of women in workforce is another imperative, Pradhan said bringing more and more women in the workforce will give further boost to our GDP and bring in social change.
On the social importance of skills, the Union Minister said: "Skill is not only an economic commodity, it is also a sociological concept. It encompasses aptitude, aspiration and emotion of the youth. Empowerment of our masses cannot happen without skilling, and we are working on to ensure this."
Describing Bhubaneswar as a progressive city of Eastern India, he said the capital city of Odisha is the epicentre of our demographic dividend.
Keeping a special focus on Odisha, the Minister unveiled a report "The Barunei Accord - Skill Development in Odisha: A Roadmap for Progressive Future."
The report projects incremental labour demand of 5.3 lakh (in 2018-19) in the state and potential to absorb around 77 per cent of the unemployed population through appropriate long term and short term skill training.
The report brings focus on significant youth population which can drive economic growth in the state and lays emphasis on skilling opportunities in Agriculture, Culture & Heritage, Rural and Tribal domains and identifies entrepreneurship model to generate employment.
It reiterates accelerating and scaling skill planning and deploying solutions such as Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), Apprenticeship and Counselling of youth.
The workshop also included a presentation on a study "The Future of Jobs 2018" prepared by World Economic Forum.
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Kannur dental student death: Case registered against loan app operators, parents allege murder
Kannur (PTI): A case has been registered against unidentified loan app operators in connection with the death of a Kannur Dental College student in Anjarakandy, officials said on Monday.
However, the victim’s parents alleged that their son was murdered and held the college faculty responsible for his death.
The Kannur Cyber Police registered the case on Sunday night based on a complaint by an assistant professor of the college.
According to police, Nithin Raj R L, a first-year BDS student, had taken a loan through an online loan app.
After he defaulted on repayment, the app operators allegedly began contacting the assistant professor.
The FIR stated that the accused contacted the woman faculty member via MMS and WhatsApp, threatening her over repayment and attempting to siphon off money illegally.
Sources said that in cases of default, such loan app operators often send messages to all available contacts of the borrower.
Raj (22), a native of Uzhamalackal, Puthukulangara in Thiruvananthapuram district, was found critically injured near the medical college block after falling from a building on April 10 and later succumbed to his injuries.
The family alleged that Raj was subjected to emotional harassment on caste and complexion grounds by two faculty members, following which a case was registered against Dental Anatomy Department Head M K Ram and Associate Professor K T Sangeetha Nambiar for abetment of suicide and under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Even though notices were issued to both accused to appear for interrogation, they are yet to respond to the police, officials said.
Police officials said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case is also examining whether Raj’s death was linked to threats from the loan app operators.
The cyber case has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Sections 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 308(3) (extortion), along with Section 66D of the Information Technology Act (cheating by personation using computer resources).
Police said Raj’s mobile phone will be examined to gather details about the loan app, and a detailed statement will be recorded from the assistant professor who received the threatening messages and calls.
Meanwhile, the SIT has recovered chat details from Raj’s phone, which indicate that he had sought more time to repay the loan.
According to police, Raj had taken a loan of Rs 14,000, and the app operators had demanded immediate repayment of Rs 8,000.
As his family was facing financial difficulties, he had requested a few weeks’ time to settle the dues.
The SIT, led by the Station House Officer of Chakkarakkallu police station, visited Raj’s house on Monday and recorded statements of his parents and sister.
The four-member team also collected digital evidence from them.
The family also met the State Police Chief Ravada Chandrasekhar and filed a petition seeking a detailed probe into the incident.
Raj’s father Rajan said his son had taken the loan for his mother’s treatment.
“We were repaying it. But recently, the repayment defaulted. If the teacher was aggrieved by the loan app’s calls and my son had done anything wrong, they should have informed us. You can check my phone, there is no call from the college,” he said.
Rajan said he had little hope of getting justice.
“They all killed my son. What justice can I expect? I worked hard for his education. We lost everything,” he said.
He also alleged that even three days after Raj’s death, there had been no communication from the college authorities.
“He was a student of that college. Not even a word from the authorities. Students there, fearing for their future, are not speaking out. At least one student should speak out for us,” he said.
Meanwhile, protests erupted at Kannur Dental College on Monday, with final-year BDS students also joining the agitation.
The college has granted leave to students of other batches following the incident.
Students alleged that the accused faculty member, M K Ram, misbehaved with students by body-shaming and physical assault.
“We were living under severe pressure. Ram was involved in body-shaming. Verbal abuse was frequent. Apart from it, he used to hit students on the head. There were also complaints against him and disciplinary action taken earlier,” a student told reporters.
Political organisations, including KSU of the Congress, SFI and DYFI of the CPI(M), MSF of the IUML and ABVP of the BJP, carried out protest marches.
KSU and SFI activists who entered the college compound were later detained and removed by police.
Kerala SC/ST Commission Chairperson Shekaran Miniyodan visited Raj’s house and interacted with his family.
He said the Commission has registered a case and sought a report from the police.
“We will collect information along with the SIT about the incident. Apart from the preliminary investigation report, we will also examine the postmortem report,” he said.
Similarly, the Kerala Youth Commission has also registered a case and recorded statements of students of the college.
Commission Chairman M Shajar said students have raised serious allegations against M K Ram and that a detailed probe would be conducted with police support.
Earlier, the Kerala State Human Rights Commission had also registered a case and sought a report from the police.
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