With many states reluctant to work with Corporate India on updgrading the infrastructure facilities of India’s Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), the Prime Minister’s Office has decided to intervene and give the effort a concerted push.

According to sources in leading industry chambers — the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) — the Centre will soon convene a meeting of chief secretaries of all states to smoothen the process of corporates adopting ITIs and improving their functioning.

At a meeting of the Coordination Committee on Affirmative Action last week, TK Nair, Principal Secretary in the PMO asked the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to organise a separate meeting with state chief secretaries within a month. "Given the slow progress in upgradation of ITIs, the PMO felt a centralised effort to impress the urgency of skill development among states was required," a chamber representative said.

Ficci, for instance, had volunteered to adopt 58 ITIs, but has been able to sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for only 19 of them with concerned state governments. "Initially, there was a mismatch between what the central government had identified as centres of excellence and what states had allocated under phase I. Last year, rationalising the list became a long-drawn process. We submitted a list of ITIs to be taken up by our member-industrialists to the labour ministry. However, signing of MoUs with states is a big hurdle," said a FICCI source. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has expressed its interest in adopting 40 additional ITIs this year. Similarly, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is also keen on adopting around 90 ITIs in southern region alone.

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