India, Oct. 4 -- Even though the first Industrial Training Institute (ITI) was established in 1950 and around 10,000 ITIs were opened in the country in the following seven decades, it took 72 years for the first-ever convocation of ITI students. This fact is another example which proves that in India, skilling has been a neglected area for policymakers.

It was only in the eleventh five-year plan that skill development got a chapter for it. However, since then there had been a steady increase in its importance and a dramatic change happened when Narendra Modi took charge of the country. Enhancing the employability of Indian workers through world-class skill training has been a major thrust area in the past eight years.

If we closely exam...