The Paschim Banga Society for Skill Development under Department of Technical Education, Training and Skill, Government of West Bengal along with The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry as the Chamber partner organized an Eastern India Regional CXO Meet 2019 on Friday, 26th July 2019 at the BiswaBangla Convention Centre, Rajarhat.

Connecting skilled people to industries is one of the main challenges of any skill related initiative. To address the issue Paschim Banga Society for Skill Development under Department of Technical Education, Training and Skill, Government of West Bengal has been conducting annual CXO meet since the last two years. This year the department has organized Eastern India Regional CXO Meet in association with the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India and The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

While addressing the inaugural session Ms. Roshni Sen, IAS, Principal Secretary TET&SD Government of West Bengal said that industry participation was of paramount importance in the skill development ecosystem and that was the purpose of the Annual CXO meet. She expressed the department's plan to execute such programs at the district levels too. She added, "To make Still Development more inclusive, the department is bringing in convergence drives where other departments like MSME, Forest, Sunderban Affairs, SHG, Women and Child Tourism, School Education and many more have been collaborated in joint skill development activities. This will in turn help in achieving successful placements." Ms. Sen explained how the State was looking at changing the entire process from being a supply driven model to a demand driven model. She informed the audience that all districts of the West Bengal had prepared a District Skill Development Plan out of which four has already been shortlisted by the Government of India among the best 25 plans from all the districts of the county. The state has won the prestigious WSIS Award at the UN for the e-Governance initiatives undertaken by Utkarsh Bangla, added Ms. Sen.

Dr. M. V. Rao, ACS, Panchayat and Rural Development Department, Government of West Bengal, presented a crisp scenario of how his department has been working in skill and connecting skilled people to livelihood programs. He cited examples of women in places like Sunderbans who were trained in fish dressing and now are supplying dressed fishes to the corporate retail players. Showcasing the model of Purulia, Jangal Mahal and Bankura he added that a large scale of women and socially backward skilled people were connected to livelihood generation through alternative plantations. Further into the session, Mr. Charanjit Singh,IAS Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development enlightened the audience with his elaborate presentation on rural youth employment generation through DDU-GKY Program. Mr. Singh mentioned that the Ministry of Rural Development has been playing a key role in skill throughout the country since 1999. He explained how DDU-GKY Program has uplifted linkages between the industry and training institutes into a win-win situation. He informed the audience that through DDU-GKY Program, 8.59 lakh rural youth have already been trained and out of which 5.64 lakh have already got placement which accounts for about sixty percent of the total number of trained rural youth. He appealed to the stakeholders of the industry to take active participation in recruiting skilled people of the country and also participate in the DDU-GKY scheme as partners.

The inaugural session was followed by two technical sessions and an open house. Mr. Shubharanjan Das, CEO, WBSRLM spoke on "Skill Development - A Tool of Poverty Alleviation". Mr. Sam Freeman, India Head of Queensland Skills and Education Consortium, Mr. SatishJamdar, Ex MD, Blue Star India also shared their views.

Mr. Asish Jehurkar, Head - Business HR, Sterlite Technologies Limited, Mr. Amit Sinha, Sr. Manager (HR), HUL, Mr. S. K. Gupta, GM(Corporate), Tata Steel, Mr. Rajeev Sharma, CGM, JBM Group, Mr. Gaurav Kapoor, Sr. Head - Industry Partnership, CSR Engagements; Media and Advocacy, NSDC, Mr. Pratapaditya Chakravarty, VP, Wadhwani University, Mr. Thomas John Muthoot, MD, Muthoot Finance, Mr. Basab Banerjee, Ex VP, Asian Development Bank, Dr. Suborno Bose, Chairman, IIHM, Mr. Subrata Dutta, Chairman, Skill Committee, BCC&I, Mr. Rajlaxmi Nahak, HR Head, PepsicoInc, Prof. (Dr.) Oscar Valiente, Senior Lecturer University of Glasgow, Mr. Sanjib Chanda, HR - Manager, ITC Group and Mr. Sushim Banerjee, CEO, Indian Iron and Steel SSC were among the panelists in the CXO meet.

The Meet was attended by more than 224 CXO's, HR Heads, Regional Heads and Senior representatives from the corporates across different focused sectors.