‘Modi, Shah Have A Vision For India’: Ratan Tata Lauds Centre At Indian Institute Of Skills’ Stone Laying Event

Union Home Minister (HM) Amit Shah on Wednesday (15 January) laid the foundation stone of Indian Institute of Skills (IIS) in his home state Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, reported Hindustan Times.

Being opened in partnership with the Tata Group, IIS Gandhinagar is one of the three institutes being setup by the central government. Other two locations are Kanpur and Mumbai. The institute in Gandhinagar is being built in a 20-acre campus.

Speaking at the occasion, Tata Group’s chairman Ratan Tata praised Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and HM Amit Shah lauding their “vision for India”. He said, several visionary initiatives were being initiated by their government.

“Our Prime Minister, Home Minister and other members of the government have a vision for India. One can only be proud of what we have and support the government that is as visionary as this government has been,” news agency ANI quoted Tata.

Other than IIS Gandhinagar, government has also partnered with the Tata Education and Development Trust (TEDT) for the institute in Mumbai, for which the foundation stone was laid in 2019.

IIS Kanpur was the first among the three to have its construction begun in December 2016, with PM Modi laying the foundation stone at National Skill Training Institute (NSTI).

Modelled on Singapore’s ITE Education Services, the IISs are being developed by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. The institutes plan to create skilled technical individuals to help industries such as aerospace, defence, oil and gas, and other emerging businesses.

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship had earlier said the concept of IISs was on the lines of that of Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Management (IIMs). It added that the institutes would be premium ones for the task of skill development in the country and will offer latest skill courses aligned to industry 4.0.

The institutes are being setup in public-private partnership (PPP) model with specific features such as particularly designed state-of-art skill centres to provide best in-class infrastructure and facilities to the students. Moving away from the regular preferred route of higher education, the students will directly be able to enrol for the skill learning domain through Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) or diploma programmes.

In the partnership with the private players like Tata Group, the government has provided the land on a lease of five years, while the private partners will have to train a minimum of 5,000 youth in a year for the five-year period once the operations begin at the institutes. The private partners will also have to maintain a campus placement performance of at least 70 per cent.

After every five years, comprehensive project reviews will be conducted for the access to the government land for a duration of 25 years.