Educating Facts and Factoids India on the fast lane, "India is the next super power" "India is no pushover" …..a lot is being said and written about India. Everyone from TiE-the US based powerful NRI club-to our very own N<strong>HR</strong>DN has been mounting national and international debate to discuss on what it means to be in India now, a happening country….. Well there are facts and there are factoids according to Jug Suraya, the inimitable columnist with a sharp wit. He wrote in Times of India the other day that by repeating endlessly what is not a fact one could create an impression that it is so. India may be all that and more but let us not get mixed up about the context and timeline and end up exhausting all the accolades be<strong>for</strong>e time and be left with only expletives <strong>for</strong> a job not done. If one only could look at the pathetic state of preparedness of the all important human resource to make the magic of India Inc happen, one could easily see what is fact and what is not . The Indian Labour Report 2007 says that "about 90 % of employment opportunities require vocational skills, but 90 % of our college and higher education output has only bookish knowledge". A similar study conducted by Infosys, the IT major, concludes that close to 30 % of the candidates they interviewed were not employable. Coming from an employer of repute who almost exclusively recruit computer specialists or qualified engineers or MBAs, this is quite a telling comment on the state of affairs. The software association Nasscom holds a similar view about the quality of the passouts from our higher education institutions about their employability quotient. Being unemployed is no curse as there is still hope of landing a job, but to be "unemployable" a curse worse than that of the devil's own. The institutions and the system that has created these can offer no excuse <strong>for</strong> continuing with this sort of affair any more. But who is in a hurry to change things on the ground? Column None and ironically by the factoids that are being trotted out of India being a world beater much ahead of times, one is only adding to the laxity and worse, complicity to continuing with the inevitable. Not that the employers who are fighting with each other to offer tantalizing packages in our business school campuses are not aware of the ability of our "blue-eyed MBAs" per<strong>for</strong>ming in live work situations. But it is equally an open secret that blue eyed are few and increasingly rare and what is being offered in the campus today may be justified in some cases but in most it could be construed as wage inflation necessitated by lack of supply, a dangerous situation to be in where you not only end up with a substandard talent but also pay more than what you would want to pay <strong>for</strong> it. Quantity and quality The much touted Goldman Sachs study of Brazil, Russia, India and China (identified as BRIC countries) is being quoted by the factoid hunters tirelessly to say that India can very well emerge as the third largest economy in the world in 2040 and the largest economy in 2050. India has the potential to grow the fastest among the four BRIC countries over the next 30 to 50 years Such a massive growth however require a comprehensive development and planning strategy that would primarily aim at providing an appropriate talent pool and leadership talent in the country which can only happen through the education process. As a result higher education has become a focus of attention in the country. According to the Indian <strong>HR</strong>D ministry 30 new central universities would be created in the 11th plan period which is about to commence, of which 16 are to be set up in areas which don't have a central university. The rest 14 are to be model universities of world class infrastructure., A.Thothathri Raman, Consulting Editor Business India magazine. E-mail: atraman@gmail.com – Thothathri Raman each of these 16 universities would cost around Rs 1,000 crores a piece. There are plans <strong>for</strong> seven IIMs, 10 <strong>National</strong> Institute of Technology, five Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, 20 IIITs and two schools of architecture. There will also be 330 new colleges in educationally backward districts. Well, the numbers are impressive enough, never mind that it will not add up to much as together these institutions will not add more than 20 per cent additional capacity of seats. The <strong>National</strong> Knowledge Commission headed by a die-hard dreamer, Sam Pitroda has recommended the establishment of 1500 new universities to bring at least 15 per cent of school pass outs to get a graduate degree. The numbers are fine and by repeating these in time and again one could even create a factoid that India will have met the magic numbers needed to fuel the manpower needs of the industry. But fact is, such massive outturn in university education would require a lot more nerve than what we have at present. A steely resolve is needed to pull out all stops to put together a higher education system which not only could fund itself on a massive scale using government, private and international sources, but also spruce the bottomline quality so that the curse of unemployable graduates will be ended once and <strong>for</strong> all. This would require a drastic rethink and greater participation by professionals in the education process than what we see at present. Time to mount a national action plan on what we can do to create capacity with quality than waste time waxing eloquent on factoids. Join me in sending in your opinion as to how professionals could establish institutions and companies to provide quality education. Write to atr124@yahoo.com u H | <strong>HR</strong>D News Letter | December 2007, Vol.23, Issue:9 16 |
Alfastar Colour Add | <strong>HR</strong>D News Letter | December 2007, Vol.23, Issue:9 17 |
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