Taking charge of the three-year-old Ministry for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship here on Monday, the new Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he would focus on “scaling up and speeding the Skill India Mission”, which involves coordinating with over 20 departments and Ministries.

“About 10 lakh people enter labour market every month; with the right skills they can earn a dignified living,” he said, adding that: “We will now work towards… bringing in convergence and coordination with States, departments, private institutions and other existing skill programmes.”

Pradhan, who takes over from Rajiv Pratap Rudy, has been hand-picked by the Prime Minister at a time when questions are being raised over how the government plans to achieve its stated goal of training 500 million people in new skills by 2022.

In the three years of NDA rule, only 11.7 million people have been trained, as per the Ministry’s figures.

Also, in a scenario where job creation is at a low, the Ministry has been questioned about the placement status. In reply to a question on August 9, the Ministry had told Lok Sabha that as of July 31, 2017, a total of 2,90,000 candidates had been given placement “offers” .

Speaking to mediapersons here on Monday, Pradhan, who also holds the Petroleum and Natural Gas portfolio, said: “It is a great responsibility… We will explore all possible grid system, information systems, technology advent that the country is witnessing, conventional jobs and new age skills to enable a more efficient outcome of our programmes and schemes in skills.”

Anantkumar Hegde, the new Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, also took charge on Monday.

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