The Managing Director of Hella India Lighting has been championing the cause of road safety and skill development across the country
Ramashankar Pandey, Managing Director, Hella India Lighting Ltd., has been inducted in the governing council of the Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC). ASDC is a sector-specific skill development council in the country promoted by the automobile industry through the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) and Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA). The Government of India is represented by the Department of Heavy Industry and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
“The governing council intends to work on skill development and certify around 25 million youth in a period of 10 years and turn them into a voluminous asset of the nation which will boast of having the youngest workforce in the coming decade,” a press release issued by ASDC states. Pandey has been engaged with development of the skill ecosystem of the country since two decades. His contribution towards the ‘Skill India’ initiative as co-founder of Prayaas Bangalore since his BOSCH days in 1998 has directly benefited hundreds of underprivileged youths get jobs and the livelihood they deserve. Prayaas currently manages three skill centres in association with Smart Village Project in Andhra Pradesh with the help of Hella India Lighting.
It also conducts workshops for amateur electricians and mechanics to make them professionally efficient. One of the objectives of the ASDC, which is the first sector-skill council funded by the National Skill Development Corporation and Ministry of Heavy Industry, is to conduct research and analysis to establish the skill gaps and develop modular courses to fill such gaps in the automotive domain. Commenting on his responsibility, Pandey said: “It’s our duty to make skills aspirational. We have to create an environment where we get away from the obsession of ‘degree and designation’ and embrace a society respecting skills and purpose. We must become the skill capital of the world.”
As the Managing Director of Hella India Lighting Ltd., Pandey is fully aligned with the government’s ‘Skill India Movement’ and has launched many novel initiatives to enhance the skills of automotive technicians. The company’s mobile training van is one such innovation to train automotive technicians. It is equipped with all amenities and tools to conduct effective training programmes at the technician’s doorstep. Complete with audio-video presentation equipment, product demonstration facility and ergonomic seating, the MTV has been travelling across the country to conduct training workshops in areas with maximum concentration of automobile mechanics.
The objective of this initiative is to provide training at the technician’s doorstep and educate him or her with the methods of proper fitting of products and understand the functions, fitment requirements, working, and more. “A trained technician will help the automobile and automotive component sector to fight spurious and fake spare parts and thus will fuel the ‘road safety’ vision. By getting trained in the highly equipped training van at their premises, mechanics and technicians feel a sense of pride and respect about their job. We need high-quality workmanship for maintaining Indian automobiles in a safe and fit condition so that they don’t become killers on the roads,” the press release states.