Youngistan meri Jaan

by Dr Deepak Shikarpur

Author is IT Technopreneur and leading author of IT books (13).

India is passing through some interesting times. Today’s times appear tough amidst slowdown and recession. But things are slow. Not down. This phase will go. Nothing in life is permanent and so is the recessionary phase. We have a great opportunity to be a developed nation by 2020 and our we can rule the world without forming East India Company by 2040. We need not use the military route but believe in Economic supremacy through Human talent. In that sense I look at IT as India’s Talent.

Earlier, population was looked at as a burden and a lot of things that happened around 30 years back -- like family planning and sterilization and the Emergency and so forth -- were all related to the theory that population was getting out of control and that it was actually a problem to have a large population. We never realized power of education and skilling with global outlook.
Why not look at young minds as human capital. Like Middle East has oil reserve we have Talent Reservoir. India is going to be the only young country in an aging world and that really makes a huge difference. This is "a demographic dividend" that could contribute immensely to the economy "not only because they can contribute internally to the domestic economy, but they can also contribute to the global economy as when they go and work outside or they can contribute through outsourcing as is being done in our industry. More young people means more savings, more GDP growth and more opportunities for young minds globally.
Thus, human capital has become the core and the essence of what is happening in India and is at the root of India's resurgence today. Look at IT, telecom, Biotech, healthsciences and you will understand the difference. Add to that Entrepreneurship in India is blossoming and Indian entrepreneurs are not afraid of liberalization anymore. They are very confident and globally competitive and they are not only investing abroad, they are buying companies abroad. India’s claim to the title Silicon Valley of Asia will be followed by the diversification from IT to biotechnology, medical sciences and other emerging fields of technology, widening the field of India’s international competitiveness and generating a large number of employment opportunities for the educated youth. These developments, driven by the firm commitment of the government and a quantum expansion of vocational training programmes, will ensure jobs for all by 2030.
We need to realize some basic mindset change to make use of this opportunity as due to poor vision at the top demographic dividend can become demographic disaster.
We need to liberate higher education system from traditional approach and make it dynamic and agile with changing times. If we have to reap globalization benefits then we need to teach global languages and culture to all our children from school level on a war footing. This will require massive number of teachers, but this is where technologies like eLearning, virtual classroom, IT enabled education will come to our rescue. Once we communicate global job opportunity to our youth the need to learn English, Spanish, French etc will be understood. Look at what happened in Kerala. Almost one $ earning member per family has changed the face of the state. Why not similar thrust in Maharashtra also. If we have to reduce agrial jobs then where is the alternative stream.
Another change in mindset we need is to implement is Skills based vocational education rather than degree based classroom education. Computerization of education will dramatically improve the quality of instruction and the pace of learning, so that many students will complete the first twelve years of school curriculum in as little as eight. Computerized distance education will catch on in a big way and enable tens of thousands more students to opt for affordable higher education. Rising levels of education, employment and income will help us stabilize India’s internal security and social environment. A united and prosperous India will be far less vulnerable to external security threats.
I appeal all parents reading this article to realize the changes and rework on their strategies to bring up their children. Please don’t make them studious bookworms. Make sure they are all round, versatile and have common sense.
One more area to be looked at is the importance of women in today’s times.
Amidst the dispute for the women reservation bill and the argument about safety of women employees in night shifts, there is a new breed of women who are not looking up to the government to provide them with space. They are the women in the Information Technology industry. The doors of IT are wide open for them and they are all geared up to become the major employees in almost all the IT firms. Without any reservation policy a significant number of women are employed in IT/BPO sector based on their talent and skills. By 2025, women will constitute almost half the workforce in the IT industry, which is already the case in the BPO sector. There are many reasons behind this demand for women employees. The women workforce, especially for ‘nontraditional’ jobs like IT, was, until recently, remained unexplored. It is a huge talent pool and I think all sectors have realised this. We believe that diversity is a key competence to create a culture of innovation. This diversity extends beyond gender to caste, creed and religion amongst others,”. For many jobs women stay focused. They don’t have distractions like cricket match, politics and are more stable studious than male colleagues. If their genuine family needs are taken care of, then they tend to stay in a job for more number of years than male colleagues. This factor is very important in an industry like software where job changing is very common.
In a nutshell we need to work on a war footing to reap demographic dividend and make our youth as a strategic weapon.

www.deepakshikarpur.com.