NEW DELHI Feb 25 (MIC): Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced several new projects in her Budget speech.
Manipur would be connected with railways for the first time, she said. A diesel locomotive centre will be set up in Manipur. All state capitals in the North-East except Sikkim will be connected by rail in the next seven years. Rail industrial parks at Jellingham and New Bongaigaon have also been proposed.
Mamata`s home state West Bengal got some big projects such as expansion of the Kolkata Metro network, a coach factory in Singur and a rail industrial park in Nandigram. A Centre of Excellence in Software at Darjeeling has also been proposed under the aegis of CRIS.
Mamata announced a bridge factory in Jammu and Kashmir and a state-of-art Institute for Tunnel and Bridge Engineering at Jammu.
Maharashtra has got a 700 MW gas-based power plant to be set up at Thakurli.
A scheme for socially desirable projects, `Pradhan Mantri Rail Vikas Yojana` with non-lapsable fund has been proposed.
10,000 shelter units have been proposed for track-side dwellers in Mumbai, Sealdah, Siliguri, Tiruchirapalli on pilot basis.
Two new passenger terminals in Kerala and one each in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have been proposed.
Where is the skilled Manpower ?
Skills Commission of Government of India estimates following requirements of “ skilled ‘ professionals during 2010-2015 :
Information Technology …………………. 3.2 Million
Retail ……………………………………………….. 17.3 Million
Banking ……………………………………………. 4.25 Million
Tourism ……………………………………………. 3.6 Million
Food Processing ………………………………. 9.2 Million
Warehousing ……………………………………. 25.0 Million
Total …………………. 62.55 Million
With a net increase in India’s population of 22 Million every year, one would think, there should be no problem in finding more than enough people to fill these vacancies.
Till you find out that no more than 1 million people get any kind of “ Vocational Training “ each year !
Unfortunately, those 1.67 million B.A / B.Sc / B.com graduates that our colleges churn out every year, are simply unfit to fill these vacancies !
With regards
hemen parekh