annual report1-final.qxd - Overseas Indian

Plenary Session 8
openness, basic education, policy coherence, she said. !
PLENARY VIII
SKILLING INDIA: A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
Chair:
Lt. Gen. (Retd.) S.S. Mehta, Principal Adviser, Confederation of Indian
Industries (CII), speaking at the plenary session on ‘Skilling India: A
Window of Opportunity’ in Hyderabad on January 9, 2006.
Opening Remarks:
Presentation:
Dr. J. Geeta Reddy,
Minister for Major
Industries, Tourism
and Sugar, AP
S. Krishna Kumar,
Secretary, MOIA
Lt. Gen (Retd.)
S.S. Mehta,
CII
S. Krishna Kumar, Secretary, MOIA, in his introductory
remarks, mentioned the objectives of this plenary
session. MOIA was entrusted with the task of administering
the Emigration Act. About 10 lakh Indians
went overseas for employment every year, he said.
While there was certification of skills for professional
courses such as medicine, engineering and management,
the problem arose in respect of semi-skilled and
unskilled workers. Should India continue to be seen as
a provider of unskilled /low skilled workers
“If we take the challenge of repositioning India as
a skilled workforce, how do we respond to this challenge”
he asked. This is where the MOIA wished to
build partnerships to realise the potential for Indian
people. He then requested Dr. J. Geeta Reddy,
Minister for Major Industries, Tourism and Sugar,
Andhra Pradesh, to conduct the proceedings.
Lt. Gen (Retd.) S.S. Mehta, Principal Adviser,
Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), while
dwelling on the road map to skilling India, stated that
the 21st century belonged to Asia. India was on the
strategic radar of developed and developing world.
He mentioned that some of the important advantages
India had were:
! Demographic advantage (mean average age
of Indian would be 23.7 years in about 10 years
from now)
! Indians spoke English
! India had a creditable IT image world over
! Potential surplus population
! Workforce shortages in developed world
However, according to Lt. General Mehta, the
reality check pointed out some challenges India
would be facing in future:
! Unemployed people would be about 63 million
by 2010
! Large-scale rural-urban migration of Indian
labour market
! Proportion of vocational training centers very
low
! Current dropout rate from schools was also
alarmingly high
In future there were plenty of opportunities in India,
he said. GoI recently launched a new programme,
‘Bharat Nirman’, with an outlay of Rs. 1,74,000 crore.
Provision of electricity to 1,25,000 villages and safe
drinking water to 55,067 villages in India was a great
opportunity for skilled workers. Thus India was positioning
itself as a land of opportunities both for investment
and employment. There was a need to provide
skilled workers at the grassroots level. There was a
need to benchmark Indian skills with global standards.
Here, the experience and expertise of overseas
Indians would be useful in investment and in developing
skills of Indian workforce to global standards.
Mehta mentioned that MOIA identified CII as partner
for providing advice in skill development. He
suggested that the interested overseas Indians could
interact with CII to chalk out programmes.
Dr. J. Geeta Reddy, in her address, reinforced the
point that India was going to have great demographic
advantage, and it should seize this advantage
and prepare action plans towards this end.
India should invest in human capital to make the
nation the third largest economic force in the world
in the near future. She emphasised the need to
establish a ‘Knowledge Network’ to share the expe-
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