Chandigarh: The international conference being organized by the International Punjabi Chamber for Service Industry (IPCSI) on January 12 in the city would focus on exploring opportunities in skills development, vocational education and employment generation of our youth job avenues.

This was stated by A R Kohli, Patron, IPCSI, and former governor Mizoram, while interacting with media persons here today. He said that the conference would be held on the occasion of 6th Annual Parvasi Divas 2008.

Kohli said that Punjab brought green revolution, white revolution and made unprecedented progress in developing its small scale industries. "Now the time has come, Kohli said that Punjab needs to usher a new revolution in its economic growth by developing the skills including soft skills and enhancing the overall personality of its youth to the international standard," he said.

He said that, although India has been making impressive strides in developing its economy, nearly 500 million of its citizens are not literate. It is estimated that more than 300 million are unemployed, while about 45 million unemployed are registered with the employment exchanges.

He said that a recent study revealed that 53 per cent of employed youth suffer some degree of skill deprivation while only 8 per cent of youth are directly employed.

Source : PTI