<span style="color: #222222;">External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today laid the foundation stone of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Centre for Empowerment and Livelihoods near the Statue of Unity at Kevadia in Gujarat. This will be a state-of-the-art skill Development centre in this tribal area. This Residential Centre will have all modern infrastructure including accommodation for about 100 youth at a time. It will run several free of charge skill courses aligned to the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).<br />'' <br />'' To begin with, the majority of the courses will focus to meet the demand of tourism and hospitality requirements at Kevadia. These include Food and Beverage Steward, Room Attendant, Mechanized housekeeping, agroprocessing specially the dragon-fruit processing, soap making for individuals and women's self-help groups.<br />'' <br />''Separate Entrepreneurship modules and career counseling and coaching for job aspirants will be other major activities at this centre. The aim of this centre is to provide training to youth, farmers, Self Help Groups every year through its various capacity building programmes.<br />''<br />''This centre will prove to be a boon for empowering the local youth and women by their skill development and by providing them employment opportunities. GMR Varalakshmi Foundation – GMRVF – has taken a joint initiative with Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited to establish this Centre with an investment of over Rs 15 crore.</span><br />