By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, NOV 10, 2017: THE Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) yesterday hosted the National Entrepreneurship Awards 2017 marking the completion of three glorious years of its inception. Congratulating all the entrepreneurs recognized by MSDE this year and highlighting the challenges of limited job creation capacity, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley said, India has a much younger population versus other advance economies. This is a huge opportunity for us to scale up and skill our workforce and reap our demographic dividend and service economies. Conventionally our focus was on awarding degrees with always a debate on how we link them to jobs. Over a period of time we have realised that we need to skill our youth for these jobs.
 
He further added, Conventionally people were skilled according to their communities but as economies develop and there is advent of technology, we need to realize the importance of reskilling and upskilling, to bridge the demand supply gap. As the economy expands, a specialized skilled workforce is the need to the hour.
 
The Strength of India’s economy will be entrepreneurship. We have to ensure that we do not restrict the youth. We let them unleash their energy, allow them to move away from the beaten track and build new ideas for the new India, he further added.
 
Speaking on the occasion Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan, said, India has become an emerging market for global investors and entrepreneurship can majorly contribute to the country’s economy. Skill development and entrepreneurship form the basis for the growth of any country. Our endeavour is to empower our youth and equip them with the right skill sets and create a conducive environment to help them build sustainable business solutions/model. In the years to come, entrepreneurship will be the key to attain a double-digit GDP.