Mysuru: Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Chemicals and Fertilisers, H.N. Ananth Kumar said that ‘Skills on Wheels’ programme is an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has taken several steps to promote skills in youth.

“Just like Marathon, this whole idea is thought of as ‘Skillathon’ as it is a continuous process,” he said.

He was speaking after launching ‘Skills on Wheels’, an initiative by National Skill Development Corporation at a programme organised at JSS Arts, Science and Commerce College on Ooty Road yesterday.

He said that Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Anant Kumar Hegde has coined a new term called Ideapreneur. “To create entrepreneurs we need ideapreneurs. I like to define entrepreneurs as creators of jobs and ideapreneurs as creators of ideas,” he said.

In the last three years, the Central Government has trained 77,000 people.  However, under ‘Skills on Wheels’ there are plans to train 6.50 lakh people in 48,000 villages of Karnataka. In this direction, Karnataka has fully geared up. Including agriculture, industries, engineering, youth will be trained in 40 different disciplines. Through this, the youth can dream of starting their own small scale industries and be a part of the growth story of the country, said Ananth Kumar.

He pointed out that though the UPA government had provided loans to the beneficiaries, they were expected to produce security. However, under MUDRA Yojana, the loans are advanced without any security and 8.5 crore youth and 3.5 crore entrepreneurs have been benefited from this scheme, he added.

MP Pratap Simha, speaking on the occasion, said that though he had been a MP for nearly four years now, nobody talked about the kind of works he had done for others. But, if someone has helped just one person, he or she goes around talking about it. The media also goes to town criticising us about it. “Even in such a situation how is it that Union Minister Ananth Kumar has won five to six times? Hence, he should teach me the skill of winning in the elections,” he said.

Suttur Seer Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji said that the youth should never go in search of jobs but instead become entrepreneurs themselves so that they can create jobs for others. Including agriculture, youth are deserting family-run occupations. Everyone is lured by IT, BT. Instead skilled workforce should grow, and job opportunities must be created and this should be the message that needs to be given, he  added.

Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde, speaking earlier, said that the Centre aimed to make the country a skill headquarters of the world.