New Delhi, July 15 (IANS): Aiming to reach out to a 440 crore young population, the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) said it has has launched an outreach programme that will help implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) launched on Wednesday.

"The announcement of the outreach programme by the telecom operators of COAI membership comes close on the heels of the national launch of the PMKVY scheme by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today," COAI said in a statement. PMKVY is a flagship outcome-based skill development scheme under the skill development and entrepreneurship ministry, which plans to skill over 24 lakh youth across the country by the end of the year.

"Skills Development is a key priority for India under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. This is not only essential for economic development, but it is also important to provide wings to the aspiration of the country's youth for good-quality, better-paying jobs and self-employment opportunities," said COAI.

The Indian mobile telecom industry, which is the world's second-largest market with close to a billion subscribers, is ideally placed to help enable this massive outreach programme to reach out to around 440 crore people and contact the unskilled workforce to seek skill training under this scheme, it added.

"We are happy to be part of this major effort for nation-building and look forward optimistically towards the grand success of this campaign," said COAI director general Rajan S. Mathews in the statement.