The Union Cabinet has approved to constitute an autonomous body called the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) by subsuming the Prime Minister’s National Council on Skill Development (PMNCSD), the National Skill Development Coordination Board (NSDCB) and the Office of the Adviser to the PM on Skill Development. The NSDA will be located in the Ministry of Finance.
The NSDA will coordinate and harmonise the skill development efforts of the Government and the private sector to achieve the skilling targets of the 12th Plan and beyond; anchor and operationalise the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) and be the nodal agency for Sector Skills Councils and endeavour to bridge the social, regional, gender and economic divides in skilling. It will also be empowered to raise extra budgetary resources. The Central Ministries and NSDC will continue to implement schemes in their remit.
The NSDA is expected to provide the much needed single point focus to ensure that skilling quality and standards meet sector specific requirements benchmarked to international standards. Such an initiative will boost employability of youth in India.
The proposal to set up the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) was first considered by the Cabinet in its meeting held on 31st January 2013 and it was referred to a Group of Ministers (GoM) to review all aspects.
