Accelerating The Country's Growth

India has viewed the size of its population as an economic and social liability. However, an educated, skilled, healthy empowered people are an asset. With the Indian economy growing at around 9 per cent per annum, different sectors of the economy find it difficult to find skilled personnel. It is estimated that the size of the working age population in India, aged 15 to 64 years, is estimated to go up. Education including technical education, medical and university, vocational and technical training of labor are on the concurrent list of the policies of Constitution of India. The Central as well as the State Governments need to work towards making India even a global education hub.

We need to give skills to these people, first of all and then create jobs for all 7 million people. We have to train people in skills like electrician, household mason, bakery and beautician among others. In order to provide these skills, we need to develop the employment capability among the people, and for all these mentioned above a new programme that is called incubation of unemployed persons of new small enterprises was launched recently.

The incubation programme is a pilot project that NSIC started   in   which   it   trains unemployed persons, who do not have high qualifications; the minimum requirement is only high school-from any place, city, villages and small towns. People are segregated into those who want skills for employment and, those who want to set up their business.  India would have an estimated surplus manpower of 47 million. This pool of human resource could be used to the economic advantage of the Indian economy, only if education and skill development is given the due importance in the planning process. The government hopes to rapidly expand higher education institutions with inclusiveness (while implementing 27 per cent reservation), along with removal of regional, social and gender disparities in education with a view to having a fully educated, modern and progressive nation.

Some of the interventions proposed for inclusive education include a rise in UGC support to institutions located in border, hilly, remote, small towns and educationally backward areas; more support to institutions with large percentage of student population of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), girls and minorities, apart from OBCs; providing assistance to create hostel facilities as well as coaching to SCs, STs and minorities, coaching for admission to professional courses and competitive examinations for central services.

Government is implementing various steps in the field of education in uncovered states aiming at world-class standards. Assistance for setting up of polytechnics in the government sector shall be extended to those states that do not have one at present. The aim of the Government is also to take of infrastructure shortages and faculty shortages that hamper education at present. The Government also aims to provide laptops to students so that they can benefit from the telecommunication revolution. The Government has to keep education issues in mind if it wants to accelerate the level of progress for the country and expand the knowledge base.