Defence Minister inaugurates HAL-IISc skill development centre in Karnataka

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, through a video conference on Thursday, inaugurated the HAL-IISc Skill Development Centre (SDC) established at Indian Institute of Science's Challakere campus in Chitradurga district in Karnataka.

Bengaluru:Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the HAL-IISc Skill Development Centre (SDC) established at Indian Institute of Science's Challakere campus in Chitradurga district, 225 km from here, through a video conference on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said knowledge is power and a skilled workforce is a basic necessity for innovation and creativity, according to a statement issued by Bengaluru-headquartered Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

The SDC is a sound example of synergistic collaboration between the country's flagship aerospace giant and the best in class premier academia, Singh was quoted as saying.

Top officials present on the occasion included Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar, Secretary (Defence Production) Raj Kumar, HAL CMD R Madhavan, Director (HR), HAL, Alok Verma and IISc Director Prof. G Rangarajan.

The centre will impart skills to various beneficiaries ranging from local community members to high-end engineering professionals to usher true Make-in-India, said Madhavan.

"We are grateful to HAL for supporting us and partnering with us on this critical national initiative," said Prof. Rangarajan.

We eagerly look forward to working closely with HAL, to realise our shared vision of training hundreds of aspiring young workers and professionals from across the country.

The goal of the SDC is to create a large pool of trained personnel to address "vital skill development gaps in India, crucial for economic growth and self-sufficiency", the statement said.

"It is a natural outgrowth of a successful training programme for rural science and mathematics teachers that IISc initiated in 2011 at the Challakere campus," it said.

The IISc approached HAL in 2016 with its proposal and HAL agreed to fund and support the initiative under its Corporate Social Responsibility programme.

The MoU for establishing the centre, with an outlay of Rs 73.7 crore was signed on March 28, 2016, and construction began on October 27 the same year. The SDC is located on 1,500 acres of land provided by the Government of Karnataka during IISc's centenary year celebrations in 2008, it was stated.PTI