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.

Furthermore, industry chambers feel that there are legacy issues with these ITIs as existing curriculum and training methods need to be revamped to meet the industry demands and skill set requirement.

The government had decided to upgrade these ITIs via PPP route, giving industry a larger control over the management and running of these institutes. It had also earmarked Rs 2.5 crore per ITI, with a contribution of Rs one crore from concerned industry stakeholder, for ITI upgradation. Towards this end, a list of ITIs under phase-I was announced, that Corporate India could take up for development. These ITIs were to be developed as centres of excellence in a specific industry, for instance, leather, automobiles or hospitality sector.