Patna: Bihar’s agriculture sector offers significant employment opportunities for the state’s youth, according to Labour Resources Minister Santosh Kumar Singh. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the five-day Mega Job Fair 2025 in Patna on Tuesday, Singh emphasised the potential of food processing and emerging technologies such as drone operations in creating rural livelihoods.
“Food processing units can be established in every village of Bihar, turning even low-value products like broken rice into profitable goods,” Singh said at the event, organised at Dashrath Manjhi Labour and Employment Institute to mark World Youth Skills Day. He noted that while broken rice is often used as animal feed in Bihar, it is now being processed into rice chips in other states.
Singh highlighted the increasing use of drones in agriculture and encouraged young people to undertake training in drone operations, which is now being offered in all Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across the state.
In a major development, Singh also announced that Tata Group is set to invest Rs 4,000 crore in Bihar to establish a Centre of Excellence, where youth will receive training in robotics. Bihar will soon become the third state in India to host a dedicated skill university, aimed at enhancing employability and creating new avenues of work.
Reflecting on a recent video conference with the Union Labour and Employment Minister and state labour ministers, Singh reiterated Bihar’s strong potential in the food processing sector, underscoring the need to tap into local agricultural produce for value-added manufacturing.
Deepak Anand, Secretary of the Labour Resources Department, called for a fundamental shift in how young people are trained. “We must update our approach if we want to generate meaningful employment,” he said, while encouraging young job seekers to be patient and committed in their careers.
The event also saw the presence of senior officials including Special Secretary Alok Kumar and Labour Commissioner Rajesh Bharti. To extend outreach, Singh flagged off the Yuva Kaushal Rath – a mobile skill development campaign aimed at remote villages in Bihar.
World Youth Skills Day, observed annually on July 15, was launched by the United Nations in 2014 to raise awareness about the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment and entrepreneurship.
