In February, Ved Mani Tiwari, chief executive of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), was making impressive announcements at a public event in the national capital: 50 new skill centres and 10 international academies had been launched under the skilling body. Little did he know that as he was speaking, an email was being drafted against him. 

Addressed to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and the NSDC board, the email cited certain “irregularities” in the way Tiwari functioned. Three months later, Tiwari was out.

On 15 May, the NSDC board put out a notice stating that Tiwari was no longer part of the body. The company’s chief technology officer, executive vice president of human resources, secretary, and chief operating officer of NSDC International all followed him out—either leaving themselves or being asked by the board to leave.

Some might say this was a long time coming. 

Recruiters and academics have been hand-wringing about the dire straits of the skill-development industry for over a decade. And as the MSDE’s financing and implementation body, NSDC is at the centre of the mess.

Essentially, it is a non-profit set up under the public-private partnership model (49% government, 51% private) to help with skilling in the private sector. 

Though it started as a financial body, providing funding and loans to training institutes looking to run skill-development initiatives, the government had other plans. In 2015, with the launch of the Skill India Missio A flagship initiative launched by the Government of India in 2015 to empower the youth with market-relevant skills to enhance their employabilityn, it was designated as the implementation body for skilling schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVYA flagship skill development scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship that provides free, short-duration training to unskilled youth, even offering certificates and monetary rewards to them on completion) as well.

In the last few years, though, it’s been struggling to keep up—largely because of a vacuum at the top. 

The body currently has no managing director, CEO, or chairperson.