Bhubaneswar,Dec. 28: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik felicitated the India Skills winners 2018 at a ceremony held at Soochana Bhawan in Bhubaneswar on Friday evening.
Minister for Skill Development & Technical Education and Planning & Convergence, Usha Devi and Chairman, Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA), Subroto Bagchi were present in the felicitation ceremony.
For the first time, 33 young men and women from Odisha, selected through state and regional level skill competitions took part in the prestigious national skill championship. Odisha won a total of 19 medals— 4 gold, 9 silver, and 6 bronze. In addition, the state has also got two medallions of Excellence. Odisha ranked second among all Indian States, behind Maharastra whose medal tally at 20 was just one medal ahead of Odisha.
The winners will undergo training in the best possible places in the country and abroad in their trade and they will compete for selection to the World Skills Competition in Kazan, Russia in August 2019. Two of these champions have also won bronze in World Skills Hi-Tech 2018, held in Russia, as a prelude to World Skills 2019.
Anup Kumar Bharti, Hemant Tudu, Jyana Ranjan Muduli, and Aswath Narayan won gold medal in Restaurant Services, CNC Turning, and M-CAD & Water Technology trade respectively. Kanhu Charan Sahoo, Soumya Ranjan Das, Sanjay Pradhan, Sudhansu Sekhar Sahu, Xenophone Das, Sumit Kumar Sahoo, Akhil Kumar Senapati, and Samnath Khotei won Silver medal in Brick laying CNC Milling, Electrical installation, Health & Social service, M-CAD, Engineering, and Water Technology trade respectively.
Similarly, Sashank Raj, Subhankar Das, Chakradhar Sahu, Subhalaxmi Subudhi, Aditya Sahu and Rishi Mukherjee won Bronze medals in Web Design & Development, Bakery, Electrical Installation, Patisserie & Confectionary, and Plastic & Die Engineering and in Water Technology trade respectively.
On this occasion, the Chief Minister also addressed 216 newly recruited lectures of Government Polytechnics and inspired them to contribute their bit for the mission of “Skilled in Odisha”.
A film on Skills directed by Padmashree Nilmadhav Panda with Sameer Rishu Mohanty and Prakruti Mishra as lead artists was also released. The film will help to showcase the skill ecosystem and attract youth towards ITIs and other vocational and skill development courses.
Commissioner-cum-Secretary, SDTE Department, Sanjay Kumar Singh delivered the welcome address whereas Director Employment and CEO OSDA, Rajesh Prabhakar Patil gave the vote of thanks.
Among others Director Technical Education & Training, Balwant Singh, renowned filmmaker Padmashree Nilmadhav Panda, the cast of the skill movie Sameer Rishu Mohanty, Prakruti Mishra and Heads of many technical and vocational institutions were also present.
Prasanta Patnaik