NIRDPR NERC organises soft skills training for officials

HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, June 23: The National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, North Eastern Regional Centre (ministry of Rural Development, Government of India), Guwahati (NIRD&PR – NERC), Assam is organising a 3-day soft skills training for officials of department of Sericulture, Government of Assam sponsored by department of Sericulture under World Bank Project Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART). The director, Sericulture, Kajori Rajkhowa (ACS) has negotiated with NIRDPR NERC to organise the customised skill training for the department officials to empower the Farmer Interest Groups and to promote silk productivity in Assam.
The main aim of the training is to create a pool of employees who possess the soft skills which are expected by the workplace, particularly the department of Sericulture. This training module has been developed by NIRDPR NERC to identify the essential soft skills to the employees of Sericulture department for effectively discharging their duties without much stress and to practically train them using various activities. This would pave the way for professional success and subsequently better citizens of the rural society. 100 officials will be trained by NIRDPR NERC in three batches. The first batch was organised during June 13 to 15, 2022 wherein 30 officials from three districts of Assam have undergone the training successfully.
This will be the second in series of programmes which was inaugurated by Prof. Bhavesh Goswami, vice-chancellor, Cotton University, Guwahati in presence of Dr. R. Murugesan, director, NIRDPR – North Eastern Regional Centre, Guwahati, and Ataur Rehman, joint director, department of Sericulture and Dr T Vijaya Kumar and Dr V Suresh Babu, course directors on June 22, 2022 at 10.00 am.
Dr T Vijaya Kumar, associate professor and program coordinator, NIRDPR-NERC, Guwahati, while welcoming esteemed dignitaries the participants to the event laid focus on the significance of soft skills and mentioned that research indicates that through soft skills training 16 percent of employees performance was improved in many organisations and nearly 12 percent of increase in organizational productivity was noticed.
Dr R Murugesan, director, NIRDPR – NERC, Guwahati while delivering opening remarks quoted that sericulture is a labour-intensive production system.
While setting the context for the programme, Dr V Suresh Babu, associate professor and program co-coordinator, NIRDPR-NERC, Guwahati stated that sericulture is the ‘Queen of Textiles’ and is an agro-based industry playing vital role in rural economy. It upholds the remunerative livelihood and employment opportunity for rural communities. India being a rich biodiversity country produces all five commercially known silk such as Mulberry (accounts for 61%), Tropical tassar and Oak tassar (accounts for 8%), Eri (accounts for 7%) and Muga silk (accounts for 0.7% of raw silk production). However, Assam state is able to contribute only 18 per cent to the national raw silk production. Assam is the unique state which produces four varieties of silk that includes Muga (95%), Eri (65%), Oak tassar (being produced only in North Cachar and Karbi Anglong districts) and Mulberry. Eri silk being an ahimsa silk not only produces spun silk from open ended cocoons but also feeds the rural population in the form of pre-pupa and pupae which is rich in proteins and lipids. Through this kind of capacity building programmes for the officials, the department of Sericulture is aiming to achieve the targets as per the Silk Policy 2020.
Prof. Bhavesh Goswami, vice chancellor, Cotton University, Guwahati while delivering the inaugural address emphasised the need for soft skill training to improve the performance of the employees. Further, he mentioned that user friendly technologies are available in plenty and the officials need to learn the technologies and the unknown things for effective functioning. Since the Eri and Muga silk is part of Assamese culture and traditions, the department should focus on enhancing the productivity of these varieties of silk and establish the brand image at the international level. He also appreciated the training design and module developed by NIRDPR on soft skills with emphasis on bringing change in attitude significance of time management and other dimensions like creativity and leadership, communication skills, emotional intelligence and team building.
The programme concluded with the vote of thanks proposed by Dr V Suresh Babu.