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While the Indian economy grows tremendously every year with the increase in working population, there continues to be a wide gap between the skilled labour force and the employment opportunities available. According to a 2014 <keyword id="6355833" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="united-nations">United Nations</keyword> report, India has the world’s largest youth population of 356 million 10-24-year-olds and by 2020, India is expected to become the world’s youngest country. As 68.8% of Indians live in the rural areas, the problem of underemployment looms one of the fastest growing countries in the world. <keyword id="6653" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICICI-bank">ICICI Bank</keyword> through their <keyword id="6354502" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="CSR">CSR</keyword> division <keyword id="339601" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICICI-Foundation">ICICI Foundation</keyword> is actively trying to close this gap in by focusing on <keyword id="2840939" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Skilling-India">Skilling India</keyword> before Making in India. ICICI is trying to reach the very last mile to train the underprivileged youth across the length and breadth of the country, and these programs have already trained approximately 2,00,000 individuals to achieve their dreams. Uplifting a community One such individual is <keyword id="6162243" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="arjun-solanki">Arjun Solanki</keyword> who had to let go of his education at the young age of 14 when he lost his father to tuberculosis in the small village of Baroda Sindhi, near Indore, <keyword id="6355554" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Madhya-Pradesh">Madhya Pradesh</keyword>, His life took a tough turn and while his friends went to school every morning, Arjun would head to fields and building sites to find work. His family depended on him for their daily bread and he was forced to look for work every day for survival. So, when Arjun’s friend Shravan advised him to take up a two-month paint application course to enable him to find better employment, he was willing to learn. The free-of-charge course was held at <keyword id="2974508" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICICI-Academy-of-Skills">ICICI Academy of Skills</keyword> where Solanki was enrolled for a two-month period while his elder brother supported the family during that time. At that time, Solanki didn’t realize that his life was about to change; he not just learnt how to paint immaculately but also learnt how to work in a formal organization by emulating soft skills like how to talk to potential clients, and gain trust to close work contracts. Arjun’s hard work and persistence paid off when Rajesh Roshan, a painting contractor from Indore hired him and promoted him from a supervisor to a subcontractor in just ten months! He now gets contracts regularly and has gained popularity amongst his peers for his success. Solanki realizes how the skill training changed his life and now has higher ambitions than ever before. Arjun has uplifted his family from poverty and bought them a pukka house in the village. Not just that, he has even put a borewell outside his home for the community use and has inspired the villagers to pursue skill training courses. From struggling to earn Rs. 100 a day looking for labour work, Solanki is now employing trained youths from the Academy of Skills who work alongside him on considerable painting contracts. When he entered the <keyword id="6162242" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="icici-skill-academy">ICICI Skill Academy</keyword>, he was not aware at the time that he will be able to build a beautiful life for himself, his family and his community. <div type="Youtube" id="hdmzwrkmh3o" title="ICICI Bank - Corporate Social Responsibility - Arjun Solanki" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hdmzwrkmh3o/mqdefault.jpg"></div>

 People who enter the industries, currently have limited understanding of the business they are entering therefore targeted initiatives focused on particular skills can help train individuals better for taking up any job. ICICI has designed several programmes under the Skill Development initiative that provide trainees with industry-relevant vocational skills. ICICI Academy for Skills (IAS) The ICICI Academy for Skills offers training in 11 technical and office skills and the courses are specially crafted for underprivileged youth between the ages of 18 and 30 years. It has trained over 79,000 candidates through its 24 centres free-of-cost. To ensure best-in-class skill training programmes, the Academy has partnered with various industry leaders as knowledge partners to co-create the course curriculum and content and has also set-up laboratories for imparting practical training. Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) As part of a national programme initiated by the <keyword id="386230" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ministry-of-Rural-Development">Ministry of Rural Development</keyword> (MoRD), ICICI has set up Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) in Udaipur and Jodhpur. This programme focuses on providing free vocational training in locally-relevant skills that empower villagers to be self-reliant. The initiative also promotes entrepreneurship and development of micro-enterprises by providing loans. ICICI RSETIs offer 38 programmes and over 61,000 individuals have been trained at RSETIs. RSETIs offer 2-4 weeks courses for underprivileged rural people in the age group of 18-45 years. ICICI also makes sure that the needs of local employers are mapped to design relevant courses under the rural initiative that are customised to suit the local requirements with a focus on practical execution of skills. All the trainees are additionally oriented on life skills, financial literacy and workplace organisation (Five S) to ensure a holistic learning experience. The ICICI Foundation has tied up with a large number of industry partners to provide employment opportunities to their trainees. The trainees have been placed in over 1000 companies including Eureka Forbes, Daikin, Bluestar among others. ICICI Foundation also promotes self-employment and encourages trainees to set up their own micro-enterprises like Arjun Solanki who has become self reliant after a two-month skill training course. <a href="https://www.icicibank.com/csr/index.html?utm_source=business_insider&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=csr2017&amp;utm_content=skill-development-business-insider-article" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by ICICI Bank </a>

Here’s how a free skill training course uplifted a daily-wage worker out of poverty

It is World Youth Skills Day and <keyword id="6569577" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Skill-India">Skill India</keyword> is also celebrating its first anniversary on the occasion. Skill India is one of the pet campaigns by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is aiming at making India top country for providing workforce.

	India is inching towards providing vocational training to youth of the country, making them learn skills, which will also provide livelihood to them, especially in the rural sector.

	The year 2015-16 has been quite remarkable for India as over 1.04 crore youth were trained under various initiative of ‘Skill India’, marking 36.8% growth compared to the year before. 
	 
	Modi also regards skill development as a national priority and as per experts, through concentrated efforts and more awareness and centres, India can make this mission a roaring success.

	One of the best decisions taken in this regard was creating a separate ministry for Skills, which brought Skills, Vocational Training and Livelihoods as an important means of nation-building to the forefront.

	Apart from the government, many private institutions have been training the youth and imparting various skills. Many have also set up centres and colleges to generate employment and give trained youth jobs.

	There are many success stories that do the rounds in the corridors of such colleges, inspiring many others to participate in Skill India and improve the livelihood. 

	For instance, Skill India is very close to President Pranab Mukherjee’s heart and he has ensured that 1500 employees at the sprawling Rashtrapati Bhavan, get certified under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) component of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), across 18 job roles.

	The program has ensured that the people working at the President’s house get oriented to their job roles, are assessed on their existing skills and then certified basis the National Skills Qualification Framework.
 Apart from the President, ICICI and <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword>, top employers and companies in India, have also made sure to impart skills.
 <keyword id="3206069" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICICI-Academy">ICICI Academy</keyword>, a nation-wide skill building initiative, has been improving the employment prospects of India’s youth.

	In fiscal 2016, ICICI opened 11 new centres and more than 25,000 youth were trained at the with representation of women at 41%.

	Now, ICICI Academy for Skills has 22 centres, including 10 centres exclusively for women.

	There are various skills imparted here such as tractor mechanic, lab assistant at diagnostic centres, two &amp; three wheeler service technician and retail sales, communication, etiquette &amp; grooming and financial literacy, etc.

	Meanwhile, Ola has signed several MoUs with different governments to train youth. They have so far committed to training 3.2 lakh youth across these states.

	The taxi aggregator has partnered with the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation to support entrepreneurship, skill development training and self-defence courses for Safai Karamcharis and Scavengers.- May 2016.

	It also inked an MoU with Andhra Pradesh government and commited investments of Rs 150 crore in the next three years to train youth and provide safe travel. Ola will provide skill development training to 50,000 driver entrepreneurs over the next 3 years.

World Youth Skills Day: Starting from the President, everyone is doing their bit

<keyword id="6355629" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google" source="Orion">Google</keyword> and <keyword id="3602182" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Meity" source="Orion">MeitY</keyword> Startup Hub, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), on Wednesday announced a cohort of 100 Indian early to mid-stage startups, to help these startups build high-quality global apps and games as part of the <keyword id="12397921" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="appscale-academy" source="Orion">Appscale Academy</keyword>. As part of the six-month programme, the 100 startups will be trained through a customised curriculum designed to help them drive high-quality apps for a global market. "Startups and developers are key drivers of <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>'s digital transformation journey. We at MeitY value our partnership with Google, and it gives me immense delight to further boost this spirit of innovation with the Appscale Academy Programme," said Bhuvnesh Kumar, Joint Secretary, MeitY. Startups of the Appscale Academy cohort are solving for some of India's critical needs through creative homegrown solutions. These include BitClass (a live learning platform), Farmyng Club (a social platform for farmers to improve their livelihood), Kutuki (preschool learning app), Sunita's Makerspace (a community to foster innovation), Stamurai (a platform offering affordable and high-quality speech therapy), LearnVern (a job-oriented skilling app offering courses in vernacular languages), Vivasayam (an app promoting organic farming), and many more. "India is uniquely positioned to become a leading hub for global app innovation with tremendous opportunity for Indian startups across the country, regardless of size and location, to thrive in the global app ecosystem," said Purnima Kochikar, Vice President, Play Partnerships, Google. The 100 startups were chosen from over 400 applications following an in-depth selection process. Representing the talent diversity emerging among India's startup and developer ecosystem, 35 per cent of the cohort come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, including Surat, Vadodara, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Morbi, and many others. Nearly 58 per cent of the cohort have a woman in a leadership role. "Our mission with Appscale Academy is to empower early to mid-stage startups with the right knowledge and mentorship to drive app and game innovations for the world," said Jeet Vijay, CEO, MeitY Startup Hub. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/maruti-icici-bank-hdfc-bank-hero-motocorp-amongst-top-losers-today-as-russia-ukraine-conflict-continues-to-worsen/articleshow/89939475.cms">Russia-Ukraine war, dipping auto sales dampen market mood – Maruti, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Hero MotoCorp amongst top losers</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/telecom/news/vodafone-idea-reportedly-wants-the-government-to-release-15000-crore-bank-guarantees/articleshow/89937099.cms">Vodafone Idea reportedly wants the government to release ₹15,000 crore bank guarantees ahead of its fundraising plan</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/tata-steel-jindal-steel-hindalco-nalco-and-other-steel-and-metal-stocks-up-today-because-russias-supply-disrupted/articleshow/89939527.cms">Indian metal companies to benefit from Russia’s supply disruption due to war with Ukraine</a>

Google teams up with MeitY to help 100 Indian startups build global apps

Technology is transforming banking at an unprecedented pace. It’s impacting every part of the business including customer expectations, products, processes, and people. We believe, in 2017 disruption of the Indian banking industry will be led by five technologies. Following the success of the Jan Dhan program, the Government has asked banks to step it up by enrolling all customers in mobile banking by 31st March. While it may actually take much longer than that, there is little doubt that mobility will continue to be at the forefront of a changing banking landscape. Next, open banking, riding on initiatives such as Unified Payments Interface (<keyword id="6358921" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="UPI">UPI</keyword>), will make it extremely simple for customers to engage with providers of the best, most contextual experience, regardless of where they have their bank accounts. With a number of data centers springing up in the country, including the ones by leading global providers, Indian banks now have more avenues to run their systems from the cloud. If banking is to become a platform business, such as Uber or Airbnb, involving open collaboration with an ecosystem of providers, there is no option but to run it on the cloud. The fourth technology to disrupt banking is clearly Artificial Intelligence. Early signs of AI are visible in <keyword id="6653" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICICI-bank">ICICI Bank</keyword>, which has used Robotic Process Automation on 200 processes or more, and in HDFC Bank, which has deployed a robot in its branch. But this is just the beginning. Banks will follow with AI investments across functions spanning the front, middle and back office. Last but not least is blockchain, where once again, ICICI Bank has taken the lead by setting up a pilot network with Emirates NBD for trade finance and remittance transactions. Blockchain has also attracted the attention of the regulators; <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/rbi-arm-tests-tech-behind-bitcoin/articleshow/56575335.cms">recently</a> RBI’s research arm, IDRBT, completed an end-to-end test on blockchain in a trade application that had multiple financial institutions, banks, clearing houses, and regulators involved. These technologies will not just change things at the front end; they will transform business models. And that will obviously create an impact on the workforce as well. For instance, just one technology – AI– could automate several processes and help banks achieve scale without adding new resources. <a href="https://www.icicibank.com/aboutus/article.page?identifier=news-icici-bank-introduces-software-robotics-to-power-banking-operations-20160809103646464">ICICI Bank</a> strongly believes that automation will enable their employees to focus on more value-added services while having better work-life balance. Our view is that while new digital technologies will automate a number of routine, repetitive jobs, they will also create a sizeable demand for new skills such as experience design, data scientists, among others. The point to note is that unlike static jobs of the past, these roles will constantly shift and change; some will go away in a few years and others will be added. This will pose a tricky workforce management challenge for Indian banks, who until now have trained people for specialized positions and lifelong careers. Going forward, they will have to nurture a versatile and flexible workforce that can slip in and out of different roles, not once, but several times in a career. An important part of that is to have employees who can work at the intersection of banking, technology, and value – people with reasonable knowledge of both the business and technology domains – given that the lines between various functions within an organization are rapidly blurring. A good example is an initiative by <keyword id="6355975" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Axis-Bank">Axis Bank</keyword> called <a href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/business-wire/axis-bank-launches-axis-academies-twin-tracking-capabilities-for-the-future/article9461215.ece">Academies</a>, to build the proficiency of its workforce partnering with institutions such as INSEAD, CRISIL, INSOFE. The bank is enabling its employees to become future ready as digital bankers, while selecting an area of specialization. The bank calls it “Twin-Tracking”. Rotation policies will assume great significance in this scenario. Banks must shift personnel around to challenge them to adapt to new roles, acquire new capabilities, and be more creative in whatever they do. ICICI Bank credits its innovativeness to a policy that says any project must go live in 90 days. The Bank says that the only way it can meet such a demanding target is by assigning each project to a specially assembled cross-functional team, which works exclusively on it for that period. The future belongs to banks that are “truly digital”. Among other things, such banks are highly empathetic to customers. If a bank has to be empathetic as a whole, all its people, and not just customer-facing staff, need to walk the talk. For that, all p<a name="_GoBack"></a>ersonnel must be sensitized to customer needs, and trained to think “customer first” regardless of whether they serve in the front or back office. A good example here is DBS Bank, <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/the-digital-reinvention-of-an-asian-bank">which won the Digital Bank Award</a> from Euromoney recently. The bank has a big focus on getting their company technology literate with a slew of initiatives for enabling their employees, changing the culture of their organization and embracing digital more pervasively. Can our banks turn these changes around overnight? Clearly not. People-related change is the hardest kind; hence banks need to approach it thoughtfully. It will also take them several years to reskill the workforce at so many levels. In the short-term, to make the most of opportunities which will not wait, banks can look at partnering with fintech companies and other startups to partly bridge their skill gaps. In the long-term, however, they would have to do it the hard way by establishing a culture of lifelong learning. (The article is authored by Mahesh Dutt Kolar, Vice President &amp; Head - APAC, Infosys Finacle)

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Here’s how a free skill training course uplifted a daily-wage worker out of poverty

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World Youth Skills Day: Starting from the President, everyone is doing their bit

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Google teams up with MeitY to help 100 Indian startups build global apps

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Here’s how technology is driving future of the banking workforce

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