Modi's govt believes in deregulation: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

AICTE, UGC, all central institutions, NEAT, four regulatory body are standing with you (Edtech companies), so what deregulation is required. That era is gone. Modi's government believes in deregulations. New age technology, technology that caters to the needs of the young generation cannot be regulated. Deregulation is the need of the hour. But a minimum governance architecture needs to be built by all, one that is NSQF compliant, one that is part of the skill India mass movement

Reiterating the stance of the central government, Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said that the focus would be towards deregulation and minimum governance to promote technical skill training intake amongst learners in the country.

While speaking at an inaugural event organised by the All-India Council for Technical Education, Pradhan said, "AICTE, UGC, all central institutions, NEAT, four regulatory body are standing with you (Edtech companies), so what deregulation is required. That era is gone. Modi's government believes in deregulations. New age technology, technology that caters to the needs of the young generation cannot be regulated. Deregulation is the need of the hour. But a minimum governance architecture needs to be built by all, one that is NSQF compliant, one that is part of the Skill India mass movement."

The senior BJP leader and education minister said though there can be exponential growth in edtech companies, but the product and services offered by them must be quality-worthy. He noted that products offered as a part of technical skilling must be National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) compliant.

"If you can comply with NSQF, we will adhere to what the IT-ITeS Sector Skill Council, NASSCOM will say. There can be certain governance restrictions… This is all a part vision of the Prime Minister for skill India. You can create a mass movement of Skill India," he said.

Pradhan addressed a large gathering here in New Delhi, while speaking at the event namely Digital Skilling in Emerging and Future Technologies, organised by the AICTE. The event was in lieu of providing skilling, internship and employment to one crore students, as targeted by the AICTE, in the emerging technologies. The Union Minister also said that it is upon India to fulfil the manpower requirement of the world, along with its nation's workforce needs.Earlier in the event, Pradhan had announced that 260 more T.V channels will be launched wherein 60 channels would broadcast educational content for every class in every regional language. AICTE, on Monday, announced the launch of a portal which would impart training modules to students, as well provide them with internships and apprenticeship opportunities. The portal has also onboarded companies such as Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, IDS, IBM and so on, who would train interested candidates for topics such as blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and other allied emerging technologies.