The fact that India imports 10,000 to 20,000 skilled welding engineers from Russia, China and Eastern Europe should be a wake-up call for the Narendra Modi government and, in particular, for Niti Aayog. It is not that Prime Minister Modi is unaware of this, but there has to be more radical thought on how to bridge the enormous gap between demand and supply of skilled people and executives in all sectors.
The Centre’s skill-development machinery targets skilling over 50 crore Indians by 2022 as the majority of engineers, and even IT graduates, coming out of various colleges and the myriad institutes are unemployable. This is also necessary if the Make in India programme is to succeed. The shortage of welders is just a minuscule though vital part of the manufacturing sector; the bigger picture is scarier as India emerges as a knowledge-based economy and human capital has now become a critical enabler.
For instance, 81 per cent of Indian CEOs see talent shortage as the biggest hindrance to growth currently, according to a professional education institute focused on bridging the gap between industry and academia. It says the gap between demand and supply of trained executives in just the banking and finance sectors is expected to be between 80 lakh and 90 lakh (National Skill Development Corporation). Retail and corporate banking alone need 14 lakh and 15 lakh trained people, respectively, as banking operations are constantly changing and need upgradation. The sector is already losing around seven per cent of assignments to countries like China, Thailand, even Malaysia, as these countries are also cheaper.
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