India’s first Centre of Excellence in online gaming to come up in Shillong by March: Minister

Shillong, Jan 13 (PTI) Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar on Friday said the government will set up India’s first Centre of Excellence’ in online gaming here by March this year.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had recently circulated draft amendments to the IT Rules, 2021, with regard to online gaming for public consultation.

“The Centre of Excellence’ is expected to catalyse startups and entrepreneurs from the entire northeast region to build the next-generation online gaming ecosystem,” said the Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.
“It is the vision of PM Narendra Modi ji that the next wave of startups and entrepreneurs must come from Shillong, Kohima and other parts of the northeast,” he said during a two-day visit to Meghalaya.

Chandrashekhar also visited the Software Technology Park in Shillong and highlighted the importance of acquiring digital skills post the Covid pandemic.

He said a state-of-the-art facility under the National Institute of Electronics and IT (NIELIT) will be set up in Shillong to provide training on digital skills.

“A 10-acre campus shall soon be ready for this purpose which shall cater to the skilling requirement of youths in the northeast region,” the minister said.
He also said that the central government is relaunching Skill India’ under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) with an objective to train around 50,000 youths in Meghalaya in “future-ready skills with industry-backed job opportunities”.

As far as other states in the region are concerned, the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship has set a target to train nearly 60,000 youths in Tripura and 35,000 in Nagaland across a spectrum of approved courses, Chandrashekhar added.