Global expertise may be tapped for manufacturing skilling
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New Delhi: India could rope in the expertise of Germany, France, Australia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Italy to create a pool of skilled manpower that meets global standards for over half-a-dozen sectors, where the country has the potential to substantially scale up manufacturing, a senior government official told ET.The identified sectors include automotive and precision manufacturing, electronics, pharmaceuticals, textile and apparel, aerospace and defence, and engineering and construction technology.The Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship will transform five National Skills Training Institutes into National Centres of Excellence , as announced in budget 2025-26. The government has earmarked ₹1,000 crore to upgrade these centres and provide skills training over a period of five years."Meetings have been held with top officials of Germany, Australia, Japan, France and Singapore to get technical help from them on machinery needed for world-class skills training, the curriculum and the level of degree for trained candidates," the official said.The guidelines for running the centres of excellence are expected to be finalised soon. The idea is to provide a continuous stream of skilled and highly skilled labour to support and sustain India's growing economy aided by manufacturing.
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This is because many of the components and other manufacturers come from from China are also key to increasing local value addition in electronics products, a stated aim of the value addition in electronics has crossed 20% within six to seven years, with a major thrust coming from the production linked incentives scheme. The government has set a target of crossing 30% in the next two to three years and reaching 38% within five years. China has a local value addition of 38%, the highest in any country.A third official said MeitY will abide by the broader stance of the government, but has fundamentally been supportive of joint ventures where there's been technology industry executive pointed out that most of the cases that were cleared earlier through Press Note 3 – under which prior government approval is mandatory for investments from countries sharing a land border with India – were from MeitY because of the requirements of the domestic electronics sector.'What is fundamentally important for the government is that an electronics ecosystem needs to develop in India and if some joint venture proposals enable this, then support will be provided,' said a senior electronics executive, who did not wish to be companies have been pushing for a review of trade ties with China, particularly concerning Press Note 3. 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China recently asked some of its companies to shutter their Indian operations and withdraw trained Indian personnel, in an effort to restrict technology is seeking to deepen and expand the supply chain by launching a Rs 22,919-crore electronics component manufacturing scheme to incentivise local push this, Indian companies need expertise from Chinese entities that currently make the bulk of the components supplied globally. 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