The elephant is marching, everyone is talking about the great economic powerhouse as India keeps dishing out 7%+ GDP growth rates.The numbers are for real and the story is exciting - there is a stupendous growth opportunity for the services sector and 40% of the 1.2bn population is below the age of 18.
Scratch this further and there are disturbing numbers. NASSCOM (India's national body for the IT industry) report says that only 25% of graduate engineers and 10-15% of ordinary graduates applying for IT jobs are employable. This is also supported by a Mckinsey report in 2005 that talked about India's HR potential. I do not have numbers for other industries but the story shouldn't be too different.
It is very obvious that the education system is out of sync with the expectations from its output. The system dishes out students with little perspective on the industry and paucity of skills to hit the job running. Obsolete curriculum and teaching methodology severely hamper its effectiveness. The biggest constraint on the education system though is the amount of government control that states what the institutes can do and what they cannot.
This places huge burden on the corporates as well as a challenge for the numerous students carrying the hopes of their middle class parents. But I believe this also is an interesting opportunity for those who see it that way.
