Skill development is a key strategy to realise India’s potential of demographic advantage of having one of the youngest workforce (an average age of 29 years in comparison to the advanced economies) for iniproving its competitiveness and growth. Also, by 2027, India is expected to have the world’s largest workforce. In this context, India needs to focus on skill development as:

• In India 70 per cent of the labour force reside in rural areas and depend on low productive agricultural activity where there is huge underemployment leading to low level of productivity.
• The lack of access to good education and training keeps the vulnerable and the marginalized sections into the vicious circle of low skills; low productive employment and poverty. As per the latest ICE360° Survey, the proportion of formally skilled workers in India is extremely low at 4.69% of total workforce, as compared to other countries like China (24%), Germany (80%) etc.
• With low skill levels the profile of the enterprises is such that nearly 95 per cent of the units are micro in size engaging less than 5 workers. This inhibits the growth of the enterprises to medium and large scale leading to poor productivity and efficiency losses.
• With the emergence of new technologies like artificial intelligence and data analytics, there is need for skilling, reskilling and upskilling of persons to participate in the global knowledge economy. Rather, India can become a global source for skilled manpower for other ageing nations

In this context, the government has launched various schemes and programmes to push skill development in India. Skill India is the flagship campaign initiative launched by the Government in 2015 to train over 40 crore Indians in different industry-related jobs. Other measures include:

• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY): It enables a large number of Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that can help them secure a better livelihood.
• Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY): It involves partner organisations who form a part of the skilling ecosystem with special focus on rural youth who are between the ages of 15 and 35 and are from poor families.
• Pradhan Mantri Yuva Yojana: It will provide entrepreneurship education and training to over 7 lakh students in 5 years (till 2020-21) through different institutions.
• National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS): It aims to promote apprenticeship training and incentivize employers who wish to engage apprentices.
• The Green Skill Development Programme (GSDP): It is an initiative for skill development in the environment and forest sector to enable India’s youth to get gainful employment and/or self-employment.

As per WTO, India’s GDP level can be increased further by 3%-5% till 2035, if it focuses on skill development and training. India’s demographic advantage is predicted to peak at around 2041, thus, India has a narrow timeframe to harness its demographic dividend and overcome its skill shortages.