New Delhi: Beginning next year, students from the northeastern states will be sponsored for professional training in some of the best institutions abroad, particularly in fashion technology and hospitality and protocol, DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday.
Addressing a seminar on “Empowering Northeast India” organised by the Northeastern Development Foundation here, the minister for the Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) said that, to begin with, eight youths from the region would be sent for training in fashion technology, hospitality and protocol courses.
He said his main concern was the mass exodus of youths from the eight states of the northeast who initially leave the region in search of quality high education and later take jobs and settle in other parts of the country, Window to News reported.
“If we have a provision for a streamlined sponsored training outside, the youth will not only gain access to quality high education but would also have the option to go back to their native place and serve,” the DoNER minister said.
In the same vein, Singh said he recently also finalised an arrangement for cost-free training of young doctors from the northeast in some of the best medical institutes outside.
To begin with, the first group of selected physicians and surgeons would start a six-month training course in onco-surgery and onco-medicine at Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai from January 1, 2016.
At the same time, considering the high prevalence of cancer in the region, he was also proposing for acceptance of Medical Council of India, exclusive seats in doctor of medicine (DM) and Magister Chirurgiae (Mch) in onco-medicine and onco-surgery respectively at Adyar Cancer Institute.
Singh also disclosed that he was persuading leaders of the food industry to invest in the northeast which would not only enable production of original products with markets across the borders but would also generate huge employment avenues for the youth.
The minister said that with a view to carry forward India’s “Bamboo Mission”, an international conference was being planned in the first half of next year, which was expected to give boost to the bamboo industry and bamboo-related vocational opportunities in the northeast.
Singh appealed to entrepreneurs, business leaders and representatives of consultancy agencies attending the conference to come forward to enter in an arrangement with the DoNER ministry and thus contribute both professionally and financially to support the efforts to benefit the youth of the region.