Amid criticism from across board for the poor infrastructure of higher education and research activities in Jharkhand, the Government has said that it was doing its best to have lots of job-ready technical skill equipped manpower as early as possible.
Admitting that the State has not been able to provide as much education infrastructure as it was bound to, Higher and Technical Education Secretary Ajoy Kumar Singh said that the Government is in process of collaboration with private entities also to have best possible education infrastructure in the State for its youth.
“Despite growing requirement of quality education in the State since days of Independence, we have been able to add only four new colleges in last 30 years. We do understand that this is not an ideal condition at all. But now we are moving faster than ever in terms of starting new centres of excellence in form of schools, colleges and special centres in the State,” said Singh.
Under Singh’s moderation, the session based on ‘Creating Decent Jobs, Enhancing Skills and Entrepreneurship’ also included Visiting Professor of Indian Human Development (IHD) and Former Senior Economist of IlO (Geneva) Dr. Ajit Ghose, Institute of Rural Management (Anand) Director Dr. Jeemol Unni, Former Director of Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (Ahmedabad) Dr. Dinesh Awasthi and Senior Employment Specialist of IlO (South Asia) Dr. Nomaan Majid as key speakers among others.
During discussion, all the panelists converged with the view that there was immediate need of shifting workforce towards non-farm sectors from farm sector for better jobs. Awasthi said, “There are instances in India itself that communities have done fantastically well in terms of entrepreneurship, which has been a proven requirement for social development. But in Jharkhand, it is seriously lacking.” He suggested to provide autonomy and flexibility to skill training institutions, so that they produce quality skill in consultation with industry bodies.
Singh added that the government was acting swiftly on bridging demand-supply gap of skilled labourers in the State. He said, “We have seen three public universities opening in State in last 6 months alone and many more are waiting for clearance. We are also collaborating with I-T companies of global stature like Oracle and Sisco for upgradation of our ITIs and Polytechnic Colleges, where they will train our students and faculties. Siemens and PTC have also offered similar services to us. Siemens is opening 3 Centres of Excellence in Jharkhand for providing technical education.”
However, Ajit Ghose said that merely name in Ease of Doing Business list will not help Jharkhand much. “Industries come when you have better infrastructure, marketplace and consumers ready for driving business. This is seriously lacking in Jharkhand,” said Ghose.
Prior to this, Anant Kumar from XISS, Ranchi said during a session on Health Sector in Jharkhand, “Healthcare services in State are not at all promising. For a decade, bureaucrats and politicians are rearing up similar kinds of thoughts regarding healthcare, which even they know are not delivering. Procurement department came into existence two years back only to have no procurement till date.”
However, one major area of concern, according to almost all of the panelists during those two sessions, was that a sudden leap towards non-farm sector in a State where more than 70 per cent livelihood was dependent on agriculture was not at all appreciable. They suggested government officials present there to develop a roadmap and create entrepreneurship in farm sector as well.
