By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala, the largest exporter of Indian workforce to the Gulf, is holding an international summit on skill early next year to get a better idea about overseas job markets.
Labour and Skills Minister Shibu Baby John, who released the logo of the three-day event, Nypunyam 2016, to be held from February 5, said he expected great participation of foreign delegates.
“Top industrialists, academicians, policymakers and government officials would attend the meet exploring possibilities of partnerships,” he said. “Latest technology and industrial trends would be discussed and effective training practices formulated”.
He said Kerala now enjoyed a unique position in India in skill development activities. During the past four and a half years, the government  initiated several projects giving sector specific advanced training, besides setting up employability centres.
“Kerala is India’s skill capital,” he said. “But the realisation that we have a long way to go to compete with the global players have prompted us to come up with such an event.”
He said efforts are on to rope in several global companies as participants, and some top notch firms are expected to take part.
Skill Fiesta would offer participants an opportunity to test and display their skills to a broad audience.
“There is an acute shortage of skilled people and talented hands in hi-tech areas like mobile robotics,” he said. “We are planning road shows in the country and abroad to promote the event”.
The participants of the Skill Fiesta are selected by way of a three-tier process - institutional, zonal level and state levels.
Students and non-students under 25 will compete in trades like welding, plumbing, fashion technology, automobile technology, catering and restaurant service, mobile robotics, fitter, electrician, bakery and confectionery, carpentry, electronics and computer-aided design through stipulated institutions.
“Our basic idea is to create awareness about jobs at the intermediate level. With right skills, the youth in the state can compete with world talents. The government is also embarking on creating a database on what the market demands,” he said.
The Congress-led government wants to make at least 100,000 youngsters ready for the job market initially and make them aware of the opportunities that await them worldwide.
Students should apply through the principal of their institution, and non-students can directly visit www.kase.in for the application process. The last date is November 27.
Students clearing the test at the institution levels can compete at the zonal level here, Kochi and Kozhikode from December 15 to 23. For finals, two contestants in each trade from all three zones shall demonstrate and test their skills.
The finalists will be jointly trained by Kerala Academy for Skills Excellence (KASE) and National Skill Development Corp (NSDC), and the finals of the Skill Fiesta will be conducted in February in the state capital.
The KASE launched an ambitious program in training, capacity building and certification to international standards in January to equip the job seekers to meet the challenges of the highly competitive market.
Pre-departure training to make the emigrants employable was one of the demands raised by the delegates from the Gulf region at the last year’s NRI conclave following Nitaqat that forced many to return from Saudi Arabia.
The KASE is also setting up a centre of excellence, Indian Institute of Infrastructure and Construction (IIIC), in Kollam. The international skill training institute will offer high-end courses in construction.
Industry majors provide skill training with guaranteed employment in India and abroad, along with shop floor training and international certifications.
Many centres of excellence have come up or are in the offing for nursing, security skills, tourism, aviation, retail, hospitality and sophisticated mechatronics among others. The training is provided by the concerned industries themselves, guaranteeing international certification for employment.
Other initiatives include community skill centres with facilities for language training, IELTS and TOEFL examinations, digital library and virtual classrooms as well as a project management institute in association with PMI, USA.





CBI informs Delhi court it can
re-investigate 1984 riots case
IANS
New Delhi


The CBI yesterday told a court that it can further investigate the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which it had filed a closure report and given a clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler.
The Central Bureau of Investigation’s statement came while replying to an application filed by the Shiromani Akali Dal where the party told the court that it will provide the addresses of three material witnesses.
The probe agency in its reply said it was prepared to investigate the matter further on the court’s permission.
The CBI had earlier informed the court that these witnesses were not traceable.
The court on October 30 reserved its order on deciding on the closure report filed in a riots case against Tytler.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler, who was scheduled to pass the order yesterday, was on leave. The court has fixed December 3 to decide on the closure report and other applications filed in the case.
Advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for victim/complainant Lakhvinder Kaur, whose husband Badal Singh was killed during the riots, said that in view of the seriousness of the offence, the court should not accept the closure report.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Kaur against the CBI’s closure report - its third - giving a clean chit to Tytler for his alleged role in the violence.
Phoolka said the CBI’s investigation was “faulty, tainted, dishonest and perfunctory”.
Earlier, the agency gave a clean chit to the Congress leader twice.
In April 2013, a sessions court rejected a closure report and ordered the agency to further investigate the killings.
The CBI did that but filed another closure report on December 24, 2014, saying there was no sufficient evidence to proceed against Tytler.


Shiromani Akali Dal activists led by party’s Delhi unit chief and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Manjit Singh G K stage a demonstration outside the Karkardooma Court in New Delhi yesterday against the CBI clean chit to Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.