Giving a direction to the industry's growth, the Minister for Steel and Mines Narendra Singh Tomar said, a three-layer framework for skill development should be adopted to meet the country's requirement.

Firstly, we need to assess the need based skill requirements in the sectors on a short-term and long-term basis. Then we should think of requirements of upstream and downstream industry and thirdly the requirements of allied industry. He said, instead of working separately on small scale, we should work cohesively on a bigger scale. This planning is of utmost importance to meet the demand and execute skill development in a strategic manner.

He thanked Rajiv Pratap Rudy for extending his Ministry's support to Steel and Mines in ensuring standardized training for the manpower in the sector. The Minister said, he will also encourage the PSUs under his Ministries to support the agreements made today.

According to a report launched in 2014, adequate supply of skilled labour could pose a big challenge for the steel industry alone which will need 2.85 lakh more such workers to treble the annual capacity to 300 million tonnes within 10-12 years.

As per estimates by the domestic steel industry, as India increases its capacity from around 100 MT now, an additional 2.85 lakh workforce would be required, considering the productivity at 700 tonnes of crude steel produced per person, per year.

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