India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the launch of a unified ‘Skill India Digital Platform’ while presenting the Union Budget 2023-2024 on February 1. The FM’s emphasis on digitisation of the skilling sector can be traced back to the previous Budget announcement of launching a ‘Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood’ or the DESH Stack e-portal for youth empowerment. The objectives of the proposed expanded version of the DESH platform: Enabling demand-based formal skilling Linking with employers including MSMEs Facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes What is DESH Stack? The DESH Stack was proposed to be a one-stop-solution for “all skilling, upskilling, employment opportunities, getting skill loans, and other industry linkages”. It is to be implemented by the National Skill Development Corporation under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. The DESH Stack will be built using existing infrastructure of National Digital Education Architecture, Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture, Aadhaar, Goods and Services Tax Network, Unified Payments Interface among others. What are the key features of the digital skilling plan? The DESH Stack e-portal is said to benefit students, school dropouts, working professionals, start-ups and service providers through opportunities for skilling, reskilling and up-skilling via online training. According to the Indian government, DESH will provide a “digital infrastructure” for skill development and deployment opportunities; mapping and connecting trainees to trainers and “trainer to training providers cutting across all stakeholders in the skilling value chain”. DESH is aimed at countering “information asymmetry and discoverability” in the skilling and employment sector. It is…
