India to play leading role in fulfilling global aspirations of 21st century: Dharmendra Pradhan

Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], April 23 : Union Minister for Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday inaugurated one of its kind 'Future of Work' exhibition under the 3rd Education Working Group (EdWG) meeting orgsed as part of the ongoing G20 Summit in Odisha's Bhubaneshwar.

The inaugural ceremony was also graced by the august presence of Atul Kumar Tiwari, Secretary, MSDE, Ambassador Atul Keshap, President, USIBC and Senior Vice President, South Asia, US Chamber of Commerce, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, Vipin Sondhi, Chairman, CII Mission on Tech, Innovation and Research and Future Mobility and Former MD and CEO, Ashok Leyland and JCB India and Raghav Narsalay, Managing Director, Accenture Research.

The Minister visited nearly 70 exhibitors with keen interest and appreciated their efforts.

The exhibitors included premier institutes and orgzations from diverse sectors such as NIT Rourkela, IIT Bhubaneshwar, IIM Sambalpur, Microsoft, Meta, UNICEF, NCERT and many more, displaying technologies that will drive the future of work with constant innovations in the modern workplace, future skills, and innovative delivery models.

The exhibition received a positive response with 10,000 visitors attending it on Day 1.

The guests and visitors witnessed many highlights, including the Future of Work exhibit in 3 sectors- agriculture, mobility and healthcare, metaverse, reverse engineering and automated design solutions, drone technology, ed-tech solutions leveraging AR/VR, industry 4.0 skills, vernacular learning-based tech solutions, virtual internship solutions, and assistive technology and tactile display for inclusion and live demo of assistive technological innovation.

This exclusive exhibition is being put together on the sidelines of the 3rd Education Working Group (EdWG) meeting under the G20 presidency from April 23rd to 28th at CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

After the inaugural, Pradhan addressed the first precursor event of the 3rd EdWG Meeting, a deep tech seminar focusing on advanced technology in Future of Work at IMMT auditorium in Bhubaneswar.

Speaking on the occasion Pradhan said that Odisha is a land of skills. Its art and architectural excellence and ancient trade linkages are a glowing testimony to this. He said the 21st century will be knowledge-based and technology-driven. Guided by its civilisational ethos and as a natural hub of talent, captive market and resources, India is going to play a leading role in fulfilling the global aspirations of the 21st century. Skills and competencies will drive the future rather than degrees, he added.

Pradhan said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has envisioned transforming India's Yuva Shakti into job-creators rather than job-seekers."

He further said that, As technologies continue to disrupt, we must think of new approaches to skilling to prepare youth for future jobs. Internet, mobility, and global connectivity provide us with an opportunity to think about global requirements. We must come together to convert this opportunity for India's youth as well as for those belonging to the global south, he added.

The Minister expressed his happiness that industry, academia, startup ecosystem and all stakeholders have come together in Bhubaneswar under the G20 Future of Work framework to reimagine the skilling ecosystem, create future-ready global citizens and make India a global hub of skilled manpower.

He also complimented and appreciated the spirit of Jan Bhagidari of the people of Odisha.

The Minister informed that more than 1 lakh youth have participated in month-long G20-related events to generate and pique curiosity about India's G20 Presidency as well as the 3rd Education Working Group Meeting in Bhubaneswar.

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) are hosting precursor events on April 23rd and 24th, and for Day 1, the theme is 'Deep Tech with a focus on advanced technology in Future of Work'.

To delve deeper into the theme around the advent of deep tech and its impact on the future of work, multiple panel discussions were held today, including India's prospects in the global semiconductor ecosystem, the world of digitalization and new-age startups.

A unique future of work experience zone that has been set up aims to display to the youth that how the future of work will evolve by getting a preview of the required advanced technical skills and softer transferrable skills at this experience zone, to remain market relevant.