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Skilling, planned urbanisation, and affordable energy emerged as key themes during the 11th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Ministers stressing the need to align human capital development with India's long-term growth ambitions, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Ashok Kumar Lahiri said on Thursday.
He said the discussions covered 'all aspects of life' of citizens, including education, healthcare and employment, with a strong emphasis on building a skilled workforce. "It's very important because a skilled population is the key to success," he said. Highlighting the importance of human capital in economic development, Lahiri said, "A literate population, a healthy population, a well-educated population is the key to success." "Prime Minister and the Chief Minister spoke a lot about employment. Here, one of the things that is very important is skilling," Lahiri added. He noted that industries often face a shortage of suitably trained workers despite the expansion of educational institutions. "As new technology comes, we have to adapt ourselves. We cannot get stuck in 1990s or 2000 technology. As things evolve we have to get new skills," he said. Lahiri stressed that skill development programmes must be guided by industry requirements. "Industry, what do they want? What kind of skills do they want? So a great collaboration between industry and the skilling institutions is very important," he said. The meeting also saw extensive discussions on urbanisation and infrastructure planning as India continues to witness rapid migration to cities. "Many chief ministers and the prime minister talked about disorderly urbanisation," Lahiri said, adding that the country's leadership is "fully aware of the fact that we need planned urbanization." According to him, discussions included the development of plug-and-play industrial parks supported by housing, roads, sewerage networks, schools and public amenities. Energy affordability and availability were also discussed, particularly the role of renewable and nuclear power in meeting future demand. "Prime Minister and many Chief Ministers talked about the question of making energy prices competitive and energy available," Lahiri said. He said members advocated wider adoption of rooftop solar systems in homes, schools, hospitals and government buildings to reduce dependence on grid electricity and ease subsidy burdens. "There was talk about nuclear energy because many of the members said it's now safe. The nuclear energy has evolved so much that we don't need to be worried about another Chernobyl," he added. (ANI)
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