Encyclopaedia Britannica India and as Deputy Secretary General at the PHDCCI. He is a Fellow at the India Development Foundation, Gurgaon.
An emerging economy requires new skills and the training curricula. This requires a new syllabus, trainers who can teach these new skills, and the infrastructure where people can be trained. Skill development is the most essential requirement for a growing knowledge economy that India hopes to be. There is indeed a close correlation between economic growth and employment growth with a higher elasticity of employment. Today the growing middle class has more disposable income and is more sophisticated. This class now requires more services and conveniences. It is increasing its spending in private sector schooling and therefore there is a crunch on the secondary education setup what with teacher shortages at all levels especially in the public sector. Since it is found that there is a huge growth in private sector schools private high quality degree while granting institutions are yet awaited. A demand-driven vocational training, a need to align education for the new economy is negated by a high premium still on government jobs, an aversion to blue collar jobs, skill shortages that are often culturally driven e.g. nursing, serving, cultural immobility, gender discrimination and an aversion to rural work.
