Lucknow, 17 Oct

(HS): Under the direction of Kapil Dev Agrawal,

Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Vocational Education, Skill

Development and Entrepreneurship, the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission

has secured first place in the country for the India Skills Competition 2026.

This competition is part of the national phase of the World Skills Competition

2026, to be held in China next year. The registration process, conducted across

63 skill categories across the country, concluded on October 15, 2025.

Under the effective leadership of Mission Director Pulkit Khare, extensive

publicity, departmental coordination, and sustained efforts to engage youth

have resulted in Uttar Pradesh achieving unprecedented success with 109,249

youth registered. This number is nearly 14 times higher than in 2023, when only

8,000 participants from the state registered.

Uttar Pradesh stood first in terms of registrations across the country, while

Andhra Pradesh (58,009), Tamil Nadu (54,409) and Karnataka (31,113) stood

second, third and fourth respectively. The districts of Jaunpur, Farrukhabad,

Bulandshahr, Etah, Meerut, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Mathura, Moradabad and

Aligarh of the state have performed excellently by registering 5075, 4315,

2975, 2795, 2702, 2701, 2562, 2368, 2343 and 2251 participants respectively.

The officials of these districts will be awarded certificates of appreciation

by the Mission.

Minister Kapil Dev Agarwal said that this achievement is a testament to the

state's growing skill capacity. Under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi

Adityanath, the state government is committed to skilling every youth and

enabling them to participate in building a self-reliant India. He said that

divisional-level competitions will be held in November 2025 and state-level

competitions in December 2025, from which outstanding talents will be selected

for the national level.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi