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"Skill is laying the foundation for a brighter India. As John Ruskin puts it, "Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect, and passion in their operation." "Nation Building" is a herculean task that involves the government of the land, private and public institutions, industries, organisations, and every citizen there, holding accountability of its development inch by inch. India faces enormous problems in practically every aspect of national life as a young democratic nation with a multilingual, multicultural, and multiethnic population. Poverty, illiteracy, unequal and underdeveloped growth of diverse segments of the country, and insufficient infrastructure in educational and training institutions are all impeding the country's development. The insufficiently skilled workforce is unable to assume greater responsibilities in the development of a better nation. In India, there is now a scarcity of highly trained and skilled educators. Both in India and overseas, there is a considerable need for all levels of skilled labour, including semiskilled, skilled, highly skilled, and highly skilled with specialisation. An estimated 65 percent of workers in India are aged 15 to 59, with an average age of 29 compared to China and other OECD countries. Approximately 335 million people are currently employed in the United States today. They are largely uneducated and have little or no experience. Approximately 59 million of the 70 million predicted to enter the market will be in the 15 to 30 age category. For the development of our country, reskilling, up-skilling, and conceiving and generating ways and means for national and international labour mobility, as well as mitigating the low contribution of women labour force, are all critical. Our youth will be more competent if we place a higher value on skill development. To address all of the concerns of globalisation, knowledge explosion and distribution, and skill development competition, the Indian government has launched a number of initiatives, including Skill India, Digital India, Startup India, and Make in India. Many groups are attempting to improve people's skills. (a) Directorate General of Training (DGT), (b) National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), (c) Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), (d) National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), (e) National Skill Development Fund (NSDF), (f) National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development, g) Skill Sector Councils, (h) ICT Academy, and respective State Skill Development Corporations. To impart and upgrade abilities, numerous organisations and universities offer a variety of certificate, diploma, and postgraduate diploma courses. TNOU also provides a variety of skill-based courses. The aspiration and ambition of the Indian Government is to make India the world's "Skill Capital." We/the editors consider it a privilege to have compiled this book titled "Nation Building through Skill Development," which contains contributions on a wide range of subtopics on various elements of skill development explored by a diverse group of authors from around the world. Choosing the chapters was, indeed, a difficult task. Original papers with less than 10% plagiarism were chosen for publication. For the publication of this book, forty-one essays were chosen. We/the editors would want to express our gratitude to everyone who submitted a chapter. The contributions that were not included in this publication are in no way considered rejects. We/the editors express our gratitude to Prof. Dr. K. Parthasarathy, Vice Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Open University, for entrusting us with this task. We/the editors would also want to express our gratitude to all those kind individuals who have worked tirelessly to bring this book in black and white. [This book was published by Tamil Nadu Open University.]

This publication presents an overview of the Asia-Pacific Regional Planning Meeting on the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE). Countries in Asia and the Pacific that participate in the LIFE initiative are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea. The purpose of the meeting was to assist the participating countries with the organization of preparatory activities for implementing the LIFE initiative following creation of Country Profiles in 2005. This publication includes comments presented during question and answer sessions, plenary discussions and group discussions. The agenda items of the meeting are (1) Global Background and Development of LIFE; (2) Literacy Challenges in the Asia-Pacific Region; (3) Presentations and Discussion in Plenary of Bangladesh and Pakistan Country Papers; (4) Proposed Framework of Support Mechanism for LIFE Implementation; (5) Proposed Guidelines of LIFE Needs Assessment; (6) Country Group Work on Preparation of Draft Country Outlines/Frameworks for Needs Assessment; (7) Panel Presentations and Discussion on Addressing Literacy Needs of Excluded Groups; and (8) Presentation of Draft Country Outlines/Frameworks for Needs Assessments, LIFE Country Plans and Discussion on Follow-up. [Published by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education.]

There are at least 6,000--7,000 languages spoken in the world today, with over half of them endangered. And 61 percent of the endangered languages are within the Asia and Pacific Region. The publication is a report derived from the Regional (Asia and Pacific Region) Workshop on Mother Tongue/Bilingual Literacy Programs for Ethnic Minorities, held from 17 to 22 May 2004. Education in mother tongues/native languages (L1) side by side with official language (L2) is not yet a common phenomenon, especially among the ethnic minorities. The complexity comes not only from a scarcity of education content and materials in L1, how to transition from L1 to L2 as the medium of Instruction (MOI), and using both languages in learning, but also on L1 itself--the writing system. Speakers at the workshop suggested that literacy training in mother tongues could be done through formal and non-formal education settings. Activities such as action research on L1 acquisition, pilot projects, development of relevant teaching materials, and professional development for teachers in L1 could raise attention for not only literacy and Education For All, but also help to preserve traditional and local cultures. The publication includes (I) survey results on native languages and education in L1; (ll) case studies from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam; (lll) approaches in introducing L1 and linkage to L2; and (lV) a survey of government policies in order to help policy makers design their own policy on education in mother tongue. Appended are: (1) Workshop Programme; and (2) List of Participants. [This document was published by the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education and was supported by Japanese Funds-in-Trust.]