Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Department of Heavy Industry today signed a Memorandum of Understanding for skill development in the manufacturing sector with focus on capital goods and automotive sector. The MoU was signed by Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rohit Nandan and Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry Dr Rajan Katoch in the presence of Union Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Rudy pointed out that the availability of talent and productivity of the workforce are among the top drivers for manufacturing competitiveness of a nation and the Government is committed to ensure that there is adequate supply of quality talent for the manufacturing sector. He said, the agreement will go a long way in ensuring supply of such a pool of talent. <br/><br/>In his address, Mr Geete said, the top priority of the government is to create jobs for the 65 per cent population which is young. He said, partnership with Ministry of Skill Development is important to make people job-ready for the capital goods sector. He said, a draft National Policy on Capital Goods' has been prepared after extensive industry consultations which will go to the Cabinet soon.<br/><br/>The purpose of the MoU is to create centres of excellence for different manufacturing skills and a multi-location national institute of manufacturing technologies for training education and research. The existing training facilities of Central PSUs such as HMT, BHEL and Instrumentation Ltd will also be upgraded. It will ensure that a robust national ecosystem for development of skills in the manufacturing sector is created in the country and internationally known best practices in this field are brought in with active participation of countries like Germany. It will make India's manufacturing globally competitive.