New Delhi, April 20 Aiming to enhance employability and facilitate placement opportunities for 600 minority youth from Bihar by providing technology-driven solutions, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has signed an MoU with IIT, Patna, under the Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan (PM VIKAS) Scheme, an official said.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), IIT Patna will train minority youth in emerging, high-demand roles such as AI technocrat and business analytics executive.
The training programme is designed to equip participants with industry-relevant skills aligned with evolving market needs, the statement said.
The MoU was exchanged in the presence of Neha Giri, Director, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Professor T. N. Singh, Director, IIT Patna, and senior officials from both institutions.
The initiative aims to enhance employability and facilitate placement opportunities for minority youth by providing technology-driven, modern skilling interventions, said the statement.
It reinforces the core objective of the PM VIKAS Scheme to bridge the skill gap and enable sustainable livelihood opportunities through contemporary training frameworks.
The collaboration builds on the Ministry’s continued efforts under the PM VIKAS Scheme. Last week, the Ministry of Minority Affairs also signed MoUs with the Indian Institute of Technology, Dharwad; National Institute of Technology, Manipur; CSIR–Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur; and Arunachal Pradesh Forest Corporation Ltd., further expanding its network of premier institutions for delivering high-quality, industry-oriented skill development programmes.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs is implementing Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan (PM VIKAS), which is a Central Sector Scheme, focusing on socio-economic empowerment of six notified minority communities through the following: Skilling and Training (Non-traditional and traditional); Women Leadership and Entrepreneurship; Education (through National Institute of Open Schooling) and Infrastructure Development (through Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram).
The scheme guidelines were approved in January 2025, and implementation commenced thereafter. So far, a target to train about 1.51 lakh beneficiaries has been allocated to Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs) across States/ UTs.
The expenditure on the scheme in 2025-26 was Rs 92.28 crore, according to official data.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor