V.V. Giri National Labour Institute (VVGNLI) is a premier and apex national level institution exclusively devoted to training, research and publications pertaining to labour and related issues. Ever since its inception in 1974, the Institute has endeavoured to disseminate knowledge and relevant skills to major social partners and all concerned stakeholders to match the emerging training requirements associated with the world of work. The Institute is also actively involved in undertaking research studies with a view to provide inputs for evidence based policy formulation. The Institute attempts to create a synergy between its research and training activities by incorporating the research findings as inputs for the training programmes and the feedback from the training programmes as triggers for research. Over the four decades of its existence, the Institute has also fostered collaborations with reputed national and international institutions concerned with labour and employment issues. For instance, the Institute has recently extended its MoU with the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation to undertake joint training activities for a further period offive years. The Institute is also empanelled as a training institution to organise International Training Programmes under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Scheme of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. During the last few years, the Institute has organised 97 international training programmes under ITEC attended byover 2260 senior and middle level government functionaries and representatives of relevant social partners from 122 countries. The Institute represents India in the BRICS Networking of Labour Research Institutes. The Institute’s library is one of the most endowed resource centres on labour information with about 70,000 books and bound volumes and subscribing to 245 professional journals and periodicals.

The relevance of the training activities being organised by the VVGNLI has assumed added and utmost significance in the context of the massive transformations being witnessed in the world of work during the last two decades. A cluster of digitally driven technologies ranging from automation, robotics, to Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things and deeperand wider digital penetration are expected to change the form and accelerate the pace of these unprecedented changes. While such developments have provided newer opportunities particularly in terms of the spread of knowledge based production processes and economic activities, it has also given rise to fresh challenges like the need to respond to changing forms of work and work relations. We need to deal effectively with such a scenario of the future of work and this is possible only when major stakeholders concerned with labour, viz labour administrators, trade union leaders, industrial relations managers, civil society organisations and researchers are equipped with relevant cognitive and behavioural skills to respond to the challenges of change at the various levels. In fact, the International Labour Organisation,the oldest international organisation in the world, established in 1919 had chosen ‘Future of Work’ as the theme for its centenary celebrations clearly highlighting the need for the social partners to deliberate on the evolving forms of work and work relations. The training interventions provided by VVGNLI have been attuned taking these developments into consideration. The VVGNLI training programmes are finalised through proper training needs assessment and based on the experience the Institute has garnered over a period of time. The Institute adopts an interdisciplinary approach to its training activities and the training delivery encompasses a mix of knowledge dissemination through lectures, participative learning, role plays, case studies and field based activities. We strongly believe that it is only through sharing of experience among and within the different constituent groups that the knowledge outcomes can be maximised.

I sincerely hope that the training programmes to be organised by the Institute during 2021-2022 meets the training aspirations of all the stakeholders associated with the labour and related issues. It is my privilege to extend to all concerned a hearty welcome to the VVGNLI and to the World of Learning on Labour and related issues.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Dr. Arvind

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Dirctor General