Narendra Deshpande

Narendra Deshpande

Steering the wheels of CSDCI to higher aloft…

In line with highlighting the profiles of a few influential CEOs leading their respective companies in this rapidly evolving environment with their exceptional leadership while portraying the qualities like transparency, agility, innovation and empathy. The fact is the success of a business completely depends on mindsets and practices ensured by the respective CEOs which makes this job role-consuming and stressful. And most of the time, their heavy contribution to the grand success of the company has not been recognized the way it should be.

Therefore, Business Connect wanted to acknowledge the major contribution of a phenomenal CEO who is known for his elaborative knowledge, performance-oriented approach and extensive experience in the construction industry. Narendra Deshpande is the CEO of Construction Skill Development Council of India(CSDCI). Skill development is crucial for the economic development of the country – the core motivation behind the establishment of CSDCI. We arranged a ‘virtual meet’ with the leader and discussed several aspects of this company that he explained quite meticulously. Let’s dive into the read to get into the pool of profound knowledge and business acumen shared by the ‘chieftain’.

Experience, expertise, and more
Narendra Deshpande is a qualified ‘Civil Engineer’ from University of Pune and ‘Post Graduate Certificate in Human Resource Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He is a dynamic and multi-skilled techno-commercial professional possessing over 27+ years of experience in industrial, infrastructure, and building construction activities.  Several times, his leadership has been acknowledged for improving organizational capabilities and exceeding expectations owing to the strategic alliances, developing & mentoring of high-performing teams.

The leader is an individual with an apt demeanor dedicated to driving organizational goals and is well-versed with the nitty-gritty of the construction industry’s requirements. He owns the repute of being a hard-working and conscientious performer with great resilience. He is always into challenging the boundaries while venturing into new territories. Being sensitive toward stakeholders and other organizational issues, his communication and interpersonal skills are an asset when it comes to dealing with every individual associated with the organization.

He proves his expertise across multiple areas such as implementation of Lean Practices, Business Process Automation, Strategy, Organizational Development, Learning, Skill & Contractor Development Professional while effectively contributing to enhancing organizational processes via initiatives geared towards lowering risk, heightening productivity & improving internal controls.

He has always exceeded expectations when it comes to deliver on organizational effectiveness and efficiencies. Be it automation of the learning and development processes, near to real time safety, quality monitoring and other organizational processes. He is said to be a people’s manager who leads by example.

He fervently believes in nurturing team members who fuel employee productivity & performance via impactful training, mentoring and leveraging which speak volumes of his insightful leadership style. Team CSDCI is confident about his unwavering vision for the construction industry. It has been more than one year that he has taken charge of CSDCI as its ‘Chief Executive Officer’. Many initiatives have been undertaken since last one year such as

1. Implementation of ISO 21001:2018 – Educational Organization Management Systems
2. Research – Both Primary & Secondary; International Manpower Requirements (A desk research activity). Depth and Spectrum of research activities is quite comprehensive and holistic in nature. More importantly the data will be State and UT specific and also available at PAN India level. Analytics from this research as they evolve would be the very foundation of driving focused, comprehensive, holistic and integrated ‘Skilling’ initiatives.
3. Joint Study with Larsen & Toubro in making ‘Qualification Packs’ more aspirational, acceptable and robust. The study will map ‘Standards of Productivity, Quality, Safety besides Ease of Working Norms’ for all relevant job roles. This exercise will be an ongoing effort to cover all the existing job roles and that which would be upcoming. This study and approach are bound to bring-in a paradigm shift in the way the construction industry functions in India besides competing with ‘Global Standards’ of performance.
4. ‘Prayas’ – An awareness drive on conveying following three points:
   1. Why it is important to possess a ‘Skill’?
   2. Why it is important to possess a ‘Qualified Skill Set’ especially in today’s context?
   3. Why it is important to possess a ‘Qualified Skill Set’ which in demand in the market?
5. Making of learning content affordable and accessible in multiple formats predominantly from the perspective of right content format for the right category.
6. Facilitating ‘Virtual Reality’ modules for immersive learning for both academia and industry.
7. Digitalization of the ‘Business Processes, Web based Learning Management System, Web based Placement Portal etc. are few major areas where work has already been initiated in the organization.
8. Apprenticeship advocacy has been taken up more aggressively than before in order to bring industry on board the ‘National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme’.
9. New Age Skill such as 2D / 3D Precast, 3D Printing, Building Information Modelling etc., are also getting readied to be delivered in more standardized manner i.e. by identifying the ‘Job Roles’ across these skill sets. This would create a huge employment opportunity for all aspirants.
10. Also, as most of the cities are becoming concrete jungles, ‘Job Roles’ in ‘Repairs & Rehabilitation’ occupation is being mapped and would be rolled out in more standardized again creating a huge employment opportunity for all aspirants.

Many more such new initiatives are being undertaken in CSDCI today under his leadership.

Role of CSDCI – Building Competencies for Nurturing Employability and Facilitating Opportunities.
CSDCI has always been directed towards creating a credible and effective mechanism based on relevant and interested stakeholders to facilitate the sheer development of skills across the country. Its role in the whole ecosystem is to set up the competency standards framework by creating qualifications and mapping the workforce as per the national occupational standards to suit the job requirements across different industries.

Being a Non-Profit Organization that is registered under Section 8 of the Indian Companies Act, 2013, it aims to develop, establish, standardize and sustain industry competency frameworks, skills levels, occupational standards, build, create and deliver capacity, investment and skilling outcomes that shall meet or exceed client’s expectations. Via its ethical, transparent and effective management of the construction and infrastructure industry, it has been able to make a huge difference in terms of establishing, monitoring, updating and sustaining corporate values and ethics for all its participants, employees, industry members and related stakeholders.

CSDCI ensures a fair assessment of the Government’s introduced schemes via its affiliates that have been mentioned below –

PMKVY has introduced Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)- a method of assessment allowing learners to gain formal recognition (certification) for knowledge, skills and competence that they already have. Different types of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) programs cater to multiple requirements where CSDCI plays an instrumental role in upskilling the commonalities.

Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan (GKRA) is an initiative towards public works, construction activities and other economic activities at a big level where the government targets the livelihoods and income prospects of migrant workers/ rural citizens.

Specially-curated projects under PMKVY

A myriad of programs and schemes fall under Central & State Government Funded Skill interventions, under various public departments and various ministries.

Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana– Gramin (PMAY-G) is a housing initiative of the Ministry of Rural Development where they have been playing a major role in creating outstanding skills with construction workers in the rural sector.

The Road Transport and Highway Ministry of India have joined hands with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), NSDC and CSDCI for training and certifying the workers who are toiling hard at ongoing roads and highway sites.

The Ministry of Human Resource and Development has conducted an assessment for students from classes 9^thto 12^thwhere CSDCI is ensuring vocational education. Assisting in Non-Government / Industry Funded Programs involved in various schemes while managing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding for improving the skills of the construction workforce, CSDCI provides persistent support.

NSDC international migration initiative under ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ – Saudi Arabia as part of this initiative assessments were conducted by CSDCI for potential workers of Saudi Bin Laden Group, Saudi Arabia under the India Saudi Skill Harmonization of Framework.

About the promoters

CSDCI has a total of four promoting bodies that are the prime representatives of the industry –

• Builders’ Association of India(BAI)
• Construction Real-Estate Developers Association of India
• Construction Federation of India
• National Highway Builder Federation(NHBF)

Pearls of wisdom by the leader

“The industry needs to work aggressively on the skilling requirements if we talk about the demographic dividend. There are exemplary opportunities to scale and innovate across the space where we need to establish over 100 large-sized construction contracting organizations of massive impact.

So, I would assert that rather than talking about the demographic dividend vocally, it is time to avidly work up leaving our future generations with such skill-sets that would shape a sustainable future for them. It is time for swift actions that could have a huge impact on our economy. It is time for each one us to come on board Skilling Ecosystem, Apprenticeship, and many more such developmental initiatives.

Onus is all on us today if we want our progeny to be carrying the best of skills, to be more than academic brilliance, to reexhibit the skill sets that build structures and which will stand for centuries to come hereafter as we see the skill sets of our ancestors in the form of monumental heritage structures standing testimony of time, etc. and hence an opportunity to be part of the Hon. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision in making India the Skill Capital of the World.”

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