That India faces a huge skills shortage is well-known there are many impressive studies that arrive at scary numbers to reflect the gap. And that lack of skills can turn the countrys demographic dividend into a demographic curse has also been said and heard often. What has not been appreciated,and perhaps is a strategic need today,is the need for someone in the government or maybe even outside,to take ownership of the countrys skills agenda.
At present,our skills development effort is diffused. There are 19 ministries and departments in the government that have something to do with training and creating new skills. The last few years have enlightened the corporate sector to start investing time and resources to create a pool of skilled workforce. It has begun by adopting Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). Two years ago,a public-private initiative the National Skills Development Corporation was established under the finance ministry as a not-for-profit company. Its objective is to catalyse the setting up of scalable,for-profit,vocational training institutions. It has taken almost two years for the NSDC to find a chief executive,and it will be some more time before its website,launched last May,starts talking of success stories.
Finally,at the apex level,we have a National Council on Skill Development directly under the prime minister,which sets the vision and provides strategic direction. The coordination board under the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission assists the council and the NSDC chairman is a member on the PMs council. In some way,the three bodies are loosely connected to ensure seamless sharing of inputs.
Besides this,states have their own mini-skills development initiatives. In fact,after launching the National Skill Development Mission,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had,in August 2008,written to all chief ministers to take advantage of the infrastructure being created at the Central level. But there has been no momentum so far. Imparting skills to the swathe of rural,uneducated youth requires mission-like zeal,and needs to be pushed vigorously and continuously. Here again,the Planning Commission is trying to goad states to act,but with little success.
It is true that the government,at the highest level,is adequately sensitised about the skills-gap that the industry faces. The prime minister,finance minister and the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission are all putting their minds together to fill what today appears to be a growing gap between the requirements of corporate India and our ability to equip young people with skills.
But the stakeholders in the situation find themselves knocking at various doors. Skills development has become everyones responsibility,but nobody is solely accountable for it. This is a not a very happy situation if we have to produce 500 million skilled youth over the next 10 years. To get such numbers,India needs to make it a single-minded pursuit.
There is nevertheless a strong contra view acountry of Indias size requires many different initiatives being simultaneously pursued by different agencies. Maybe there is merit to that argument. However,so far,skills-related intervention by various Central ministries and states has not really yielded results. In a recent article written for The Hindu Survey of Indian Industry 2010,M.V. Subbiah of the Murugappa Group,who chairs NSDC,points out that only 2 per cent of the countrys workforce has had any skills training. In South Korea it is 96 per cent,Germany 75 per cent,Japan 80 per cent,and the United Kingdom 68 per cent. Against 12.8 million annual new entrants to Indias labour force,the 30,000 skills training centres have a capacity to train only 3.1 million youth.
The challenge is phenomenal,and so is the opportunity. Some ministers have already thrown their hat in the ring. During an informal discussion,a government functionary told me that at least two senior ministers in the Cabinet HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and Anand Sharma,who has the Commerce and Industry portfolio have lobbied separately that skills development be added to their work allocation. They are smart enough to realise the political capital that will accrue if their initiatives help in imparting employable skills to the vast population of poorly-educated young Indians. Sibals and Sharmas ministries spend the most on skills development after the labour ministry,so their overtures may not be out of place.
The national skills mission requires managerial talent besides political will and single-minded pursuit. Someone who has the PMs confidence,and the capacity to bridge the business-politics divide,can pull it through.
pv.iyer@expressindia.com
