Over 30,500 people registered with SWADES Skill Card till Jan 25: Singh

new delhi: over 30,500 people have registered for swades skill card, out of which more than 24,500 citizens have returned from the gulf cooperation council (gcc) countries like the uae, saudi arabia, and bahrain, till january 25, parliament was informed on friday.       swades (skilled workers arrival database for employment support) is an initiative of the government to conduct skill mapping of the returning citizens under the vande bharat mission (vbm).     it aims at creating a database of returning citizens based on their skill sets and experience. swades is a joint initiative of the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship, the ministry of civil aviation and the ministry of external affairs.     as per the norms, those citizens are required to fill up an online swades skill card, containing details related to the work sector, job title, employment and years of experience.     "as on january 25, 2021, more than 30,500 citizens have registered for swades skill card, out of which more than 24,500 (about 80 per cent) citizens have returned from  gcc countries (uae, saudi arabia, oman, qatar, kuwait and bahrain)," minister of state for skill and entrepreneurship r k singh said in a written reply to the rajya sabha.     in a separate reply, singh said that under pmkvy 2.0 (pradhan mantri kaushal vikas yojana) (2016-20), about 1.07 crore candidates have been trained or oriented till january 19 this year since 2016.