Opinion Irregularities at National Skill Development Corporation must be addressed urgently

The problems of the National Skill Development Corporation have festered for too long. Only a few months after the NSDC’s board fired its then CEO, Ved Mani Tewari, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has now filed a complaint with the Delhi Police against officials alleging “misappropriation at NSDC” as per a report in this paper. Skilling is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the country — the ability to harness the demographic dividend rests on a skilled labour force. The sorry state of affairs in an agency deemed one of the “principal architects” of the country’s skill ecosystem is, therefore, a cause for concern.

The NSDC’s support to the skilling ecosystem was operationalised through various instruments such as funding, designing skill-based programmes and partnerships with industry. Reports in this paper, however, paint a less-than-flattering picture of the its operations. Several FIRs have been filed against its training partners across the country. Investigations have shown the “blacklisted” training partners were “allegedly tampering with attendance records to include students who were missing from training centres”. This is not the first time that the NSDC has been mired in controversy. In 2015, a CAG report had noted that “there were serious issues in the governance and accountability mechanisms at NSDF (National Skill Development Fund) and NSDC and the implementation of the identified roles by these bodies”. Over the years, concerns have also been raised over the quality of the training imparted and employment prospects. The corporation has an ambitious goal — to skill or up-skill 150 million people. Its recent track record does not inspire confidence.

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The Centre has taken several steps to skill the country’s labour force. It has, for instance, launched initiatives such as the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), and allocated a considerable amount of funds to this area. Under the various avatars of this scheme, Rs 10,570 crore were released till March 2024. The total number of people certified under PMKVY and STAR (Standard Training Assessment and Reward Scheme) stood at 1.13 crore, while the total reported placement was 24.4 lakh. The government’s increasing involvement indicates that it recognises the criticality of the skill mission in achieving the goal of developed country status by 2047. It now needs to undertake a detailed examination of the skilling ecosystem and of the players therein. The problems need to be resolved urgently.