The Bengal Chamber was pleased to host Shri Purnendu Basu, Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge, Department of Technical Education, Training & Skill Development, for an interactive session at its Managing Committee Meeting held on 12th April 2018.

In his speech, the Minister said that the Government had undergone an intense analysis on the skill and training needs and that the estimated figure for skilling and re-skilling need for workers stood at 40 crores. As against this, presently only about 0.5 crore people are being trained annually. This large gap was a challenge. He therefore felt that having limited resources and time, it was necessary to make the right choice for addressing the right skill gaps and the right sectors in order to achieve a large impact. The Government has worked with hundreds of stakeholder in different segments to identify the best policies in 40 different areas ranging from education, agricultural performance and disaster management. Achievable targets would be now fixed to work on this through the PPP model.

He felt that the Chamber with the help of its members will be able to find out the requirement of skilled manpower and act as a bridge between industry and the Government. A detailed in-depth skill-gap study across the State was required to provide the right skills and skilled workforce for the industries.

He believed that purposeful participation from the private sector was crucial for success of skill initiatives. Addressing skill job mismatch and wastage of talent was vital while working towards industry requirements and expectations.

West Bengal with 60% of its population below 40 years of age had a huge potential as far as having a skilled workforce was concerned. It was one of the leading potential sources for churning out skilled educated manpower for the rest of India. He wanted to know if the Chamber could provide vocational training with the help of their members in the State run schools.

Speaking about agriculture, the Minister said that majority of West Bengal’s population lived and worked in villages and was engaged in agriculture. Therefore, it was of vital importance to extend support to this majority by way of what they needed. They needed quality seeds, soil testing facilities, watershed management and storage facilities, market linkages, agro-based industries and the like. The Minister urged the members of the Chamber to work in association with the Government in areas of agriculture which had immense growth prospects.

The Minister stated that traditionally the field of agriculture was never seriously considered the way industry was thought of, although it is true that industries do use agricultural products in large scale. He cited examples of the jute and tea industries which never operated the way an industry did. Although West Bengal was leading in the production of raw jute, the State has to procure seeds for jute production from Andhra Pradesh or Maharashtra.

The Minister felt that a substantial amount of work can be done by the industry entrepreneurs who could come forward and work at the grass roots level. He felt that both jute and tea had huge potential to be developed in such a way that it could transform the entire economy of the State. However, these sectors should be developed from an industry perspective.

The Minister also made the following points for development of the agriculture and allied sectors with the help of industry.

• Agricultural loan guarantee schemes which can be worked out with help from the banking industry.
• Setting up of seed hubs in the State. Other than Rice and Mustard, presently seeds for all other agricultural produce have to be procured from other States by West Bengal.
• Fisheries to develop in the scale of industries.
• Skill development for rural healthcare needs like skilling of paramedics etc.
• Mobilisation of available skilled work force towards each of the above activities and working on skill development specifically in the agricultural sector.

The Minister stated that he wished to have a thorough discussion on the subject of engagement with industry and other stakeholders and jointly working on the agriculture front. He felt that there was now a need for banks, management experts, entrepreneurs, agro-scientists and others to come together to develop this sector as there was huge takeaways for all concerned by jointly working together in this sector.

The Minister concluded his talk by requesting all present to join hands in the State’s development initiatives in the areas he had talked about, each working from their own work areas, to touch the lives of the lowest segments of the society and bring about quantum change and development in the State. He wanted to develop a mutually gainful working relationship and bring about change by working together.