MSDE and WEF Partner to Launch ‘India Skills Accelerator’ Aimed at Bridging Workforce Skill Gaps.
MOUs and Agreement
In April 2025, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), in collaboration with the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum (WEF), co-hosted a high-level roundtable at Kaushal Bhawan, New Delhi. The event marked the official launch of the "India Skills Accelerator", a public-private collaborative platform designed to address India’s pressing skilling challenges.
- The initiative aims to tackle workforce skill gaps—identified by 65% of Indian organizations as a critical barrier—through strategic cross-sector partnerships and comprehensive systemic reforms.
- The India Skills Accelerator initiative aims to unite various sectors to develop innovative and sustainable solutions for India’s evolving skill development needs. It emphasizes fostering awareness and driving a mindset shift by highlighting the future demand for skills in high-growth sectors such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, energy, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.
- The platform also focuses on strengthening collaborations between the government and industry to promote upskilling, reskilling, and lifelong learning. Additionally, it calls for modernizing institutional frameworks and policies to build a dynamic and adaptive skilling ecosystem across the country.
Main Point :- (i) The India Skills Accelerator initiative will be co-led by key government stakeholders including Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Jayant Chaudhary from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), and Dr. Sukanta Majumdar, Union MoS for both the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ministry for Development of North Eastern Region (MDONER).
(ii) In addition to the government leadership, the initiative will have two private sector co-chairs: Shobana Kamineni, Executive Chairperson of Apollo HealthCo Limited (Hyderabad, Telangana), and Sanjiv Bajaj, Chairman and Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv Limited (Pune, Maharashtra), ensuring strong public-private collaboration.
About World Economic Forum (WEF)
President and CEO : Børge Brende (Norway)
Headquarters : Cologny, Switzerland
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