The Centre’s ambitious scheme of providing job opportunities to one lakh youths of Jammu and Kashmir has got a boost with corporate majors like Infosys, Tatas, Godrej and Bajaj evincing interest in joining the initiative.

Taking forward the special scheme on the basis of the recommendations of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appointed C Rangarajan Committee, the central government has started placement of youths in small numbers in service sector outside the state.

The Rs 235.3 crore centrally-sponsored scheme to be implemented over next five years was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on May 19. The scheme will have active involvement of corporate world starting from beneficiary selection, training and finally through “handholding and mentoring” during placement.

A large number of corporates including Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Godrej and Boyce, Crompton Greaves, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Apollo Hospitals have expressed their willingness to join this “unique and exciting venture”, they said.

Under the initiative, there is a proposal to identify 10 to 20 companies across industry sector to partner with an educational institution and run special training programmes to enhance employability for 8,000 students every year.

This would translate into 40,000 youths in Jammu and Kashmir becoming employable in various sectors across the country.

Under the Skill Empowerment and Employment (SEE) Scheme, experts, in consultation with the Rural Development Ministry, have developed a special placement-linked, market-driven skill training programme for the J and K youth.

The Rangarajan panel had submitted its report to the Prime Minister in February, 2011. The report suggested a two-pronged approach to employment generation — identify sectoral initiatives for growth and employment generation and increase employability of youth by improving skill sets.

Under the scheme, different training strategies will be used for diverse groups of youth school dropouts, dropouts of XII class level and those who have had college education.

The objective of the SEE scheme was to provide options and opportunities to all youths in the state regardless of their educational qualifications to select training programmes for salaries or self-employment as per their interest.

Government had said that in the first year, 15,000 youths will receive training for salaried and self employment opportunities. Under the Special Scholarship Scheme (SSS), 5,000 scholarships per annum may be awarded for the next five years. Out of this, 4,500 scholarships (90 per cent) could be for general degree courses and 250 each for engineering and medical studies.

These scholarships would not only cover, subject to a normative ceiling, the full tuition fee but also hostel fee, cost of books and other incidentals. A possible annual normative ceiling for the programme could be Rs 30,000 for general degree courses, Rs 1.25 lakh for engineering and Rs three lakhs for medical studies.