In order to strengthen institutional mechanisms for skill development and increase access to quality and market-relevant training for youth across the country, Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) was launched on 19th January, 2018 with an implementation period till March, 2023. SANKALP is a World Bank loan assisted scheme with the present agreement between Government of India and the World Bank for $250 million (Rs. 1650 Crore). The releases(disbursement) from the World Bank to Government of India is upon achievement of the agreed Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs). SANKALP has three result areas namely (i) Institutional Strengthening at National, State and District level; (ii) Quality Assurance of skill development programmes; and (iii) Inclusion of marginalized population in skill development programmes.

The World Bank undertakes periodic implementation support missions to review the progress of the scheme. As per the aide memoire of the sixth implementation support mission conducted by the World Bank during 13-16 September, 2021, the scheme has been rated as “Satisfactory” on the overall implementation progress of the scheme while the progress towards achievement of program development objectives has been rated as “Highly Satisfactory” which is the highest rating as per the World bank rating criteria.

There are 08 DLIs for SANKALP with year-wise targets. As per the requirement of the World Bank, the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship has onboarded Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore as the Independent Verification Agency (IVA) to verify the DLI wise achievements. Till date, IVA has verified the achievements against the targets set for FY 2017-18 to FY 2019-20 and accordingly the World Bank has disbursed an amount of US$ 166.52 Million (Rs.1099 Croreapprox) to the Government of India under SANKALP.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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MJPS/AK