Jaipur, Jul 10 (IANS): Rajeev Swaroop, Chief Secretary, Rajasthan government addressed the 3rd Rajasthan Skills Summit organised by FICCI on Friday and acknowledged the fact that these are testing and unprecedented times.

"Government is aware of the challenges faced by the industries due to the lockdown and phased unlocking and would facilitate industries to restore normalcy in times to come," he added.

Swaroop mentioned that every adversity presents certain opportunities and we are determined to leverage our strengths with innovation and better management to emerge stronger than before.

The self-reliant India campaign cannot be achieved only through technological advancements but must be supplemented with skilled human resource for creating globally competitive products and services, he added. He also mentioned the initiative of recognising prior learning and reskilling - upskilling of migrant workers who have returned to the state and align them to the industry requirements.

Niraj K Pawan, Secretary - Labour, Skill, Employment & Entrepreneurship and Chairman, RSLDC mentioned about the key initiatives taken by the State Government to bridge the skill gap while creating employment opportunities.

Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI mentioned that Covid has impacted the skilling sector in multiple ways. The training providers should be supported to survive, revive and thrive. Similarly, this new way of working from home opens new avenues for many who were otherwise not part of the workforce especially women and those who cannot travel for some reasons.

Lalit K Panwar, Vice Chancellor, Rajasthan ILD Skills University said that our university is the first Govt Skills University in the country. He talked about the "Catch Them Young", Skilling at School level and college level only so that students can join skilling programmes during education only. Due to Covid physical skilling has stopped and we need to focus on the digital skilling programmes, he added.

Ashok Kajaria, Chairman, FICCI Rajasthan State Council & CMD, Kajaria Ceramics Ltd in his welcome remarks called for collective efforts to put the economy back on track. The ambitious programme on Atmanirbhar Bharat also calls for making local products global. This has got many subsets like manufacturing competitiveness, import substitution, value for money, etc, he added.