Need for Skills Development

India is one of the most progressive economies in the world. Yet the country has many challenges to face. Some of the typical challenges that make skills development an urgent need for our country are:

• Population of 1108 Million ¹ with the estimates of employment being 509.3 million only
• High Unemployment rates: 4.2 million & 308 million unemployed people in rural & urban areas respectively ² .63 million people shall be unemployed by 2010 which is more than entire population of UK, France & Italy Skewed Workforce distribution:
  • 90% workforce in the un-organized sector, approximately 383.71 million ³ in 2001.
  • 27.79 million ⁴ people working in organized sector. Employment has been stagnant at 30 million for thirty years (22 million in Public Sector, 8 million in Private Sector).
  • Large Scale unplanned rural-urban migration causing urban poverty, slum dwellings proliferation, crime, etc
• High instances of poverty: Approximately 260.3 million people were living below the poverty line in 1999-2000⁵.
• High school drop out rates: 300 million children in India are between the age of 6 and 16. Out of this only 10% will pass school and go beyond.
• Labour Force Participation Rate is as low as 40.5 & the total labour force million are 416.2 million ⁶.
• Given India's employment elasticity (0.16)⁷ and ICOR (3.75), the 8 million new jobs needed to freeze unemployment require an impossible annual GDP growth rate of 13.6 % and investments of $125 billion.

The answer to these challenges is in capacitating the people by making them self-reliant & independent of external support. This can be achieved only by having a plan of action, which is futuristic, and aims towards providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to the masses. While basic literacy is a must, Skills Development of the youth is important for the holistic growth of the country.

It is for these reasons that CII took upon itself the task of "Making India the Skills Capital of the World". CII conceived and launched the Skills Development Initiative in 2004, to become a catalyst in creating a skills movement in the country. The objective is to generate social inclusiveness and provide the socially and economically vulnerable population a chance to be part of the mainstream economy. Skills Development Initiative aims at harnessing India's 'Demographic Dividend' to make the people employable for employment/self employment in India or abroad. For tangible benefits, the training provided is necessarily benchmarked on international standards. CII views skills as a 'global currency'.