Smart Cities Need Right Policy

By G Krishna Kumar Published: 22nd September 2014 06:00 AM

 

Smart city has become a buzzword, thanks to PM Narendra Modi’s vision of creating 100 smart cities. The Kyoto-Varanasi partnership agreement that was signed during the PM’s visit to Japan has only increased the curiosity about smart cities.
The Japanese have managed to keep the cultural heritage of Kyoto and other cities intact while ensuring best-in-class infrastructure. Who can miss the magnificent Kinkaku-ji temple? The city has an excellent mix of well-maintained new and old-age structure, and the clean Kamogawa river. Kashi is planned to be developed as a smart city while preserving its heritage. Getting Kashi anywhere close to Kyoto will be a herculean task. Let us hope to see some visible difference.
Before we look at Indian smart cities, let us understand the global scenario. By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. It is established that cities directly contribute in increasing national GDP and also improved productivity and innovation. The concept of smart cities is aimed at solving the rapid urbanisation challenges. Using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as the core focus, smart cities are expected to combine a sustainable future with continued economic growth and job creation.
Smart cities can be created by adding “smartness” into existing cities or building new cities with best-in-class physical infrastructure and Internet connectivity.
Examples abound on the smart city initiatives in Singapore, Spain’s Barcelona and South Korea’s Songdo. In fact, China plans to move over 250 million people to smart cities by 2025.
Singapore, which already boasts superlative infrastructure, is taking “smartness” to the next level and aims to become the first “Smart nation”, through the Smart Nation Platform or SNP. Essentially, a plan in improving policy making and implementation along with a seamless feedback mechanism from the citizens to help in continuous improvement and providing better quality of life to the people.
This involves high-end sensor-based ICT infrastructure to collect data from various places in the city, analyse the data and provide real-time information to people—often called “situational awareness” for the public. It could be insights on traffic congestion, parking space availability or weather or any other useful information.
In India, while many private players have initiated smart cities, Gujarat International Finance Tec-city or GIFT is the most visible government initiative. GIFT is located close to Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The land area of 3.58sqkm is more than twice that of Tokyo’s Shinjuku or Paris’ La Defense. GIFT’s green belt area is over 20 times that of London’s Dockyards.
The government has identified four corridors—Delhi-Mumbai, Bangalore-Chennai, Amritsar-Kolkata and Vizag-Chennai—for building smart cities. Details from the urban development ministry’s draft concept note on the 100 smart cities is awaited. Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu has indicated that the state governments will play a dominant role in the formation of smart cities. A recent news report estimates an annual funds requirement of `35,000 crore for the smart cities. We will require India-specific measurement criteria and a smart city index that reflects the basic infrastructure and how “smart” a city is. Also, it is important that rural areas closer to the smart cities directly benefit from the new infrastructure.
Isn’t it is intriguing that the most planned city in the country, Chandigarh, is not already a smart city? Now, “New Chandigarh” is being planned to be developed as a smart city.
Building new cities is necessary, however it could take decades to complete. Hence, the government must focus on improving basic infrastructure in the existing cities and towns.
Broadband connectivity alone will not suffice. The government should accord paramount importance to improving transparency and creating a less corrupt system. Importantly, we need basic civic amenities to be improved and a reliable public transport system.
Can the existing infrastructure be better utilised? For example, Bangalore’s deplorable daily commuting woes are well-known. Roads are choked and at the current pace of its implementation, no one is sure when the Metro can go beyond joy rides. While we wait for it, what prevents the state government or the railway ministry from introducing local trains using existing broad-gauge lines connecting east and west Bangalore as most of the infrastructure is in place?
Using ICT, it is easy to provide traffic updates on mobile phones. But, won’t we love a hassle-free commute through better infrastructure, than being informed of a daily 45-minute jam? The current infrastructure is so fragile that a downpour will leave most cities in absolute disarray.
Once we have the basic infrastructure, “smartness” can be added through ICT—creating surveillance systems for public safety, providing efficient emergency services, adding intelligence or improving e-governance.
The government’s responsibility in creating the right policy framework and implementation plan for building smart cities is clear. However, what is most important and often overlooked is the need to change our mindset/attitude towards the city/town we live in.
There are cases in many cities/towns, where the government has created simple infrastructure like tiling the footpath or footpath grills/safety grills to help pedestrians. In most cases, the structures are damaged/destroyed or go missing. Essentially, someone has used it for personal gains. Why do we have difficulty in maintaining public structures and why we can’t care for them?
Perhaps, we should learn from the Japanese. For example, across the country mirrors are fixed at road junctions and blind turns for the safety of motorists—the mirrors remain never go missing. Why are the Japanese sensitive about public assets? Is it love for their country or that they are a disciplined race? We need a change in our mindset to appreciate and safeguard public property. It is appalling to see educated people being indifferent. A sustained awareness campaign is needed starting with the schools to enforce the right attitude. More interactive sessions with bureaucrats or ministers on the lines of the recently held PM-students session can help reinforce the message.
Smart cities can provide tremendous economic growth. However, improving basic infrastructure in the existing towns and cities is paramount. Most importantly, we need to demonstrate improved civic sense for building a smarter India!
The writer is adviser,Centre for Educational and Social studies, Bangalore.
Email: krishnak1@outlook.com

 

Wake-up call

Published on Thursday, 18 September 2014 11:09 . LEAD EDIT PAGE ARTICLE - DAILY POST INDIA


G Krishna Kumar


J&K, Uttarakhand tragedies set tough task for India’s disaster management team

It was ‘land of gods’ Uttarakhand in 2013 and now ‘the land of paradise’ Jammu and Kashmir devastated by the flood fury. Over 250 people are confirmed dead and tens of thousands rendered homeless, their lives completely shattered and future thrown into disarray. The estimated infrastructure loss is over Rs 6,000 crore. Such 547 calamities have grossly exposed India’s absolute lack of preparedness. We can blame the government for not enforcing regulations, but people should equally be held responsible. Why do we encroach land and build illegal structures? This lackadaisical attitude is deplorable.

While we commemorate the tenth anniversary of 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean,  we should know that India is among the most disaster-prone countries in the world. Data suggest that close to two-thirds of the country is vulnerable to earthquakes and droughts. As much as 76 per cent of India’s coastline carries a risk for cyclones and tsunamis.

We are sure to witness many more major or minor disasters. Reports indicate that accumulated losses from minor disasters would be same as those from major disasters.  Natural disasters occur across the world and impossible to avoid. It is, however, all about preparedness and reducing the impact. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was initiated after the 2004 tsunami. There are questions around NDMA’s ability in planning and implementation. Every time we witness a major disaster, there is a blame game between NDMA and the state government. Post-Uttarakhand crisis, the state government set up disaster management funds and multiple conferences were held.  Such activities should be sustained beyond knee-jerk reaction with time-bound action plan for disaster preparedness.

NDMA’s India disaster resource network provides an exhaustive online inventory of resources like life saving boats, critical medical supplies, etc, needed for disaster response. There is no data available for many states, districts including Jammu and Kashmir. The data for Uttarakhand is the most up-to-date, but for states like Karnataka, the data last updated were 10 years back. There are only 12 life jackets available in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district, which was one of the worst hit districts during the 2013 flood. Only two trauma specialists identified for the whole of Mohali district in Punjab, while in Jalandhar district, only one general physician has been identified.  The data is indeed alarming and just proves how woefully underprepared we are.

Can we learn from other countries in developing flood resistant cities and towns?  The Netherlands has developed flood control system that can resist 100 year floods. Japan, one of the most disaster prone countries, has created a resilient tsunami management system.  Australia and New Zealand are among the best in terms of disaster management. How about involving the premier technology institutions in the country to come-up with feasible disaster resistant homes? In this age of technology, why don’t we have top class weather forecasting systems that can help in accurate predictions? In terms of alerting the general public, we should implement a simple disaster alert and early warning system like the one in Japan. This is definitely possible considering that we boast of 75 per cent mobile penetration in the country. Maybe learn from some of the south Indian cities where, patrol vans are used as public address system to alert people. Creating awareness and educating general public about natural disasters is largely missing in India. For example, the concept of disaster supplies family kit is not seen, also we need regular and well publicised mock drills.

In general, natural calamities and rescue operations are covered extensively by media, while post-disaster recovery does not get similar attention. Which state has the most robust post-disaster recovery set-up in the country? It is vital not to ignore the recovery effort experiences from previous disasters. Do we have any lessons learnt from the 2004 tsunami or the 2013 Uttarakhand rebuilding efforts? NDMA should embark on creating a platform for experience sharing in-order to replicate best practices. What are benchmarks for rebuilding in the country? Let us take Japan’s example. Within 10 weeks, electricity and water connections were completely restored after the major earth quake in Kobe. Infrastructure was rebuilt in two years as that alone is the basis for all kinds of recovery activities. When can we see such benchmarks in India?

The UN’s Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) review report states that following disasters, public put greater pressure on administration resulting in improved governance and accountability. The rebuilding efforts must take the environmental aspects into consideration; participation from local communities is very much needed. It is eventually a fine balance between economy, people and environment. Even after 67 years of independence, it is embarrassing to see such a primitive disaster management set-up in the country. We need concerted effort to minimise the impact of natural disasters. Both pre-disaster preparation and time-bound post-disaster re-building system should be accorded paramount importance. It is imperative that the NDMA be strengthened with best-in-class technology and a state-of-the art weather monitoring and alerting system should be implemented for a safer India!

(The writer is Adviser, Centre for Educational and Social  Studies, Bangalore. Views are personal)

We Need India-ready Engineers

The New Indian Express, Lead Edit Page article - Page 8

By G Krishna Kumar Published: 21st June 2014 06:00 AM Last Updated: 21st June 2014 01:02 AM

Recently, Twitter was abuzz with tweets from the current and former human resource development (HRD) ministers congratulating the ministry and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) as India became a permanent member of the Washington Accord (WA). This was achieved after several years of consistent effort by the MHRD, while India was a provisional member of WA since 2007. So, does this mean that India’s engineering education has suddenly improved? Before we jump into the benefits or lack of them, let us put the “accords” into perspective.

Globally, there are at least half a dozen accords on engineering education and all of them are non-governmental, with WA being the most popular one. With India’s inclusion, WA now involves 17 nations including the US, Japan, South Korea, Russia and others for accrediting professional engineering degree programmes through an international agreement. Noticeably, China is not part of the accord. WA recognises the substantial equivalency (meaning accreditation systems have comparable standards, outcomes, and processes, though they may not be identical) of programmes accredited. It also recommends that graduates of accredited programmes in any of the signatory countries be recognised by the other countries as having met academic requirements. The idea is to improve technical education worldwide and foster the mobility of students/graduates and also help in better preparedness to begin entry-level professional practice.

WA covers the four-year professional engineering undergraduate degrees around core engineering domains like mechanical, electrical, electronics, chemical and structural engineering, among others. However, it does not cover software and computing stream. The International Engineering Alliance website clarifies that accreditation is not retroactive but takes effect only from the date of admission of the country to signatory status. The other agreements covering mutual recognition of engineering education include the Sydney Accord, signed in 2001 for bachelor’s-level engineering technology programmes and the Dublin Accord, signed in 2002 for associate’s-level engineering technician and diploma. In general, the accords specify duration of the programmes and title offered (BE, BTech, diploma, etc.)
The Seoul Accord, which commenced in 2008, exclusively focusses on computing and software engineering programmes. Isn’t it intriguing that India is not a part of this accord? India should have been chairing the accord considering that we boast more than a 3.1 million-strong IT workforce and our engineering education system is already tilted towards the IT industry.
Sample this: The approved intake for undergraduate engineering courses in India is over 16 lakh per year and there are 3,500 approved colleges. The numbers are big enough for India to strengthen its accreditation standard and enrol other nations into it. How about an India Accord? It is time for India to demonstrate leadership.

India’s NBA, an autonomous body, is responsible for periodic evaluations of technical institutions in the country. It classifies the engineering colleges in the country as Tier 1—covering the institutes of national importance (including IITs, IIITs, NITs, IISERs and IISC), autonomous and deemed universities. Tier-2 would cover the rest of the engineering colleges affiliated to various universities in the country.

The NBA website states that the courses/programmes in Tier 1 institutions would receive the accreditation status and international equivalence under WA. Now, the challenge is to obtain WA accreditation for the Tier-2 institutions.
The high weightage parameters required for WA accreditation include faculty contributions, programme outcomes, facilities and technical support. This would mean huge effort and cost to be incurred by the colleges for modifying existing courses, training/replacing academic staff, improving infrastructure and cost of accreditation process. It is likely that the cost will simply be passed on to the students. This is justifiable, provided there is a marked improvement in the quality/employability of the engineers.
In a country where anything foreign is highly valued, it looks like the NBA has used WA as a tool for overhauling the engineering education system. This is perfectly fine as long as NBA achieves its goal of improving technical education in the country.
Even without WA, the best students in India, keen on pursuing higher education or engineers seeking jobs abroad, have been able to fulfill their dreams. Similarly, the best colleges are always invited by other nations to start new campuses. So, the ground-level impact is unclear on these areas. Rather than focusing on mobility of students, NBA and the MHRD’s priority should be to cater to the engineering requirements within the country—improvement in quality of engineering graduates including technical, soft skills and innovation. Adopting best practices from other countries is needed, but the aim should be India-focused. This also means an environment that fosters active partnerships between industry and engineering colleges is much needed.

The job market is a function of demand and supply. Assuming the quality of engineers is addressed, what about job opportunities? Currently over 60 per cent of the engineering graduates don’t find jobs and are forced to take up non-engineering jobs. The government should take a holistic view of entry-level workforce demand-supply and support growth in existing/new industries with a long-term view.
We should move away from quantity-oriented approach and rather focus on quality. Intake in engineering colleges should be monitored as the cut-off scores are significantly watered down just to fill vacant seats. The MHRD should also consider raising the duration of engineering courses to allow for apprenticeships. In addition, a clear road map to support research activities through industry participation is pivotal. India also has a sizeable diploma colleges and many of the aspects from WA-triggered initiatives can be replicated into diploma courses as well.

While India’s entry into WA is appreciated, it should not end up becoming a marketing tool. It is imperative that the MHRD utilises WA as a trigger to ensure industry-academia participation and overhaul the engineering education system to spur innovation, research and entrepreneurial skills.
We need “India-ready” engineers to find the “right jobs” and importantly in India!

The writer is adviser, Centre for Educational and Social studies, Bangalore.
Email: krishnak1@outlook.com

 

Create jobs where the job-seekers are

G Krishna Kumar  April 16, 2014:   Lead Edit Page , The Hindu Business Line ( Page 8)

A recent TV programme that reviews the work of MPs in their constituencies threw up an interesting fact — the chief concern raised by people across constituencies was the lack of job opportunities — not corruption nor infrastructure issues. A clear message that people need jobs rather than freebies.

The finance minister recently said the unemployment rate has fallen and is about 5.5 per cent. Chidambaram added that the UPA has fared much better than the NDA, though the absolute number of jobs created had not increased during the UPA regime. How? Perhaps the reduced unemployment rate can be attributed to people taking up jobs out of desperation — jobs with no relevance to their field of study or specialisation.

Instances of engineering graduates joining the insurance sector and educated people in the rural areas taking up manual labour are common these days. A labour ministry report says many people in employment are actually overqualified for the job they are doing and, therefore, society is losing valuable skills and forfeiting stronger productivity growth than would have been achieved.

Employability

India produces over 7 lakh engineering graduates every year; over 60 per cent of them don’t find relevant jobs. Questions have been raised on the quality of graduates, their employability. On an average, over 10 lakh people will enter the job market every month over the next decade and this number is expected to rise. The much-hyped demographic dividend must be used effectively, before it is too late. But where are the jobs?

The job market is primarily a factor of demand (for skilled people) and supply (availability of the right people). Reports suggest that the situation is quite alarming, with over 25 per cent of under-30 degree, diploma or other certificate holders unemployed. In contrast, it has been argued in recent reports that unavailability of the “right” talent is costing the economy a whopping Rs 53,000 crore and that India’s talent adaptability ranking is among the lowest. The new government will have to quickly address this severe demand-supply mismatch.

India’s biggest challenge has been the low-productivity agriculture sector that employs 50 per cent of the people, but accounts for just 14 per cent of GDP. There has been a constant decline in agriculture-based employment over the past two decades, with people shifting to non-farm jobs in labour-intensive areas, such as manufacturing and construction.

The MGNREGA and the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna are only helping more people take up non-farm jobs. But a CRISIL report states that incremental non-farm employment is expected to decrease more than 25 per cent to 38 million in FY 2013-19 as the economy has been treading a lower-growth path.

High productivity services sectors such as finance, insurance and business services, including the IT sector, provide employment for only 3 per cent of the population, yet account for about 20 per cent of GDP. However, these industries have limitations in adding millions of jobs every year in a highly competitive global environment.

What needs to be done?

India needs a multi-pronged ‘rural-oriented’ strategy to improve the employment scenario. First, the Government should focus on improving farm productivity. With over two-thirds of the population living in the rural hinterland, the focus must be on using science and technology to improve farm output.

Countries like Australia and New Zealand spend heavily on farm R&D. Seventy per cent of the value of farm output in such countries arises from the various sources of productivity growth, such as improvements in infrastructure and communications, higher quality inputs, and new technologies from research and extension activities.

Some advanced counties are even encouraging urban agriculture as a key theme, including production, processing and distribution of agricultural produce.

Considering India’s demography, just replicating ideas from other countries may not work; instead, the concepts must be adapted to improve productivity.

India also needs major changes in rural infrastructure — better roads, and a reliable power supply and communications set-up.

Second, it is time policy was tweaked to enable indigenous manufacturing and thereby generate significant job opportunities. Isn’t it intriguing that India does not have the infrastructure to manufacture mobile phones indigenously?

There is certainly an opportunity for India to become a dominant player in the global manufacturing sector. Should it adopt the German model, in which public and private sectors work together and generate jobs? Or focus on creating a good ecosystem for cottage/ small-scale industries to flourish — maybe with learning from Japan? There is an urgent need for the right government policies and impetus to spur job creation in the large manufacturing sector.

 

Placement targets

Third, skill development initiatives such as the National Skill Development Corporation’s (NSDC) programme to create employment-ready people are very important. Although NDSC has not met the job skilling and placement targets so far, this initiative must be pursued with greater vigour going forward to achieve the skilling target of 350 million by 2022.

The Government formed the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) to support the NSDC by coordinating with it to create a framework for skill development. Eventually, the success of any such initiative is determined solely by employability.

It is imperative that the government accords the right priority to removing policy hurdles to create job opportunities, mainly in the rural areas. This, along with an increased focus on skill development, is urgently needed to address the serious demand-supply mismatch.

The writer is Advisor, Centre for Educational and Social Studies. Views are personal

(This article was published on April 15, 2014)

 

Symphony Teleca crafts solutions for a connected, mobile world

Symphony Teleca crafts solutions for a connected, mobile world   (http://www.indiatechonline.com/it-happened-in-india.php?id=1245)

From iPhone audio to in-car systems to dual screen phones, India-based engineers have contributed to the company's innovative solutions

Bangalore December 31, 2013: For Palo Alta ( California, US)-headquartered Symphony Teleca --
the world's first services company focused on creating products at the convergence of software, mobility and the cloud-- buzzwords like Internet of Things, Machine to Machine and Smart Metering are more than the stuff of year end crystal ball gazing. They are workaday technologies that the company harnesses in the service of software vendors, mobile device and solutions manufacturers worldwide, as its engineers turn today's bright ideas into tomorrow's cutting edge products.
"There is a continuing evolution in how everything works with everything else in the home -- from smart TVs to smart metering", says Andrew Till, Symphony Teleca's UK-based Senior Vice President and head of the Mobile and Media Devices Business Unit, " I see 4G and 4G+ driving a whole new generation of personalized services built rich multimedia and location/context aware cloud-based platforms."
Thanks to its good relationship with Google, Symphony Teleca has rolled out over 600 Android apps since 2007, making important contributions to its performance and stability. A big chunk of the company's solutions have been around Android at home with five anchor customers in the burgeoning field of smart metering.
Retail, telecom, automotive, healthcare, and energy are some of the areas where mobility is the name of the new game -- and the company has contributed innovation in all these areas, Till says.

Key software to manage the YotaPhone, the world's first dual screen phone --an LCD touch screen on one side and an electronic paper display on the other -- was created at the India labs of Symphony Teleca, adds G. Krishna Kumar, Vice President Engineering, Mobile and connected Devices . Indian engineers brought their Android platform expertise to bear, to improve power management, manage the dual displays. If users could read long news articles and social networking updates and display photos, stock quotes etc on the EPD without draining the phone’s battery or having to constantly “wake up” their smartphones, it was thanks to the tight integration of the EPD into the phone software.
In other arenas too the Indian end of Symphony Teleca has contributed significant chunks of software innovation, Krishna Kumar adds. The Pune centre has special expertise that has flown into Symphony's connected car solutions; while Bangalore-based engineers have contributed software to the Wolfson chip which fuels the audio on the iPhone.

 

Learning from the Germans

G Krishna Kumar, Vasishta Haavanur | Updated: Nov 18 2013, 12:06 IST

Summary
India will do too well to adopt a skill development-based education system like the one Germany follows

The Union HRD minister recently stated that India has the potential to become the worldwide hub for sourcing skilled labour, apart from meeting the country’s demand. While this is indeed possible, India faces significant challenges around skill development and employability. The recent article “India’s skill will conundrum” (goo.gl/15k0lh) in a leading newspaper provides some insights on the challenges in India’s skill development.

It is well known that India is set to become the youngest country by 2020 with an average age of 29 years. Empirical data suggests that the presence of large percentage of working-age labour force, also called India’s “demographic dividend”, would greatly stimulate economy and growth. It is time to look afresh at the broad education framework in the country and imbibe some of the best-in-class education systems in the world to improve skills and employability in the country.

In this backdrop, how about learning from Germany? Germany has the best employment-oriented education system in the world through its Duales Ausbildungssystem or the dual system of vocational education and training (DSVET).

Global adoption of DSVET
The DSVET, pioneered by Germany allows youth to pursue over 350 apprenticeship occupations like assistants to doctors or assistant in a legal firm or specific jobs in manufacturing industries. It provides skills to the youth without a degree, thereby providing them a great opportunity to enter the labour market.
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research states that 66% of the school students enter the dual system and the entire program is mostly financed by the German companies. The course combines practical apprenticeships in a company and theoretical vocational education at a school. The duration of the theory and practical aspects vary from a few days to months. This system allows the student to be a quasi-employee of the company from the beginning, and based on individual interest and performance, a student could find full time employment.
The European Commission states that work-based learning, such as dual approaches, should be a central pillar of vocational education with the aim of reducing youth unemployment. The time-tested DSVET has been replicated in many European countries like France with positive results. Many of the countries affected by the European crisis are looking at the DSVET for improving employability. Interestingly, while countries like Greece and Spain have over-50% unemployment rates, Germany has managed to keep it at less than 8%. Although many experts attribute the low unemployment rate in Germany to its strong economy and more aged population, DSVET certainly has certainly contributed to better employability in the country.
A news report suggests that China has recently started DSVET and the results are encouraging. It is quite astonishing that some form of DSVET system has been in India since the early 1990s! The Indo-German Training Center (IGTC), which is part of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, is credited with bringing the system to India. Isn’t it unfortunate then that only around 100 students pass out of this system every year?

Challenges in replicating DSVET
It is quite intriguing that despite considerable effort from Germany in propagating the DSVET in other countries, the model has been successful only in a few countries. Why? Adopting the dual system involves more than mere duplication. Existing skill development framework needs to be overlapped with DSVET by considering the country’s educational, social and economic objectives. Besides, industry-academia relationship is crucial for a successful DSVET system. In addition, the government’s willingness and the availability of mass-employment generating industry are extremely important.

What needs to be done in India
India needs a three-pronged strategy to adapt the VET system. First, a strong career counselling system should be developed at the secondary school level. In Germany, segregation of children based on their abilities is carried out in the 6th grade. It is certainly debatable if a kid’s future should be decided at the age of 11 or 12 years. In India, we need schools to monitor and provide career counselling to the students when they are in 10th standard. This would help identify students who can pursue regular higher education and the ones who should take the DSVET route.
Second, we need to develop a system that will encourage industry bodies to own the DSVET initiative, including the decision on the syllabus for theory and practical training. Maybe, the mandatory CSR contribution from companies can be used effectively this way. Further, the HRD ministry and the All India Council for Technical Education could collaborate with the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce and come up with an implementation plan along with the leading industry bodies in the country. Perhaps such an exercise will help in strengthening the government’s initiatives like the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework (NVEQF). As a pilot, the DSVET initiative could taken up in a highly industrialised state like Tamil Nadu or Maharashtra and a state with a low level of industrialisation like Bihar or Odisha.
Third, with the advancement in ICT, students could attend theory classes using the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform that provides a classroom-like environment. Perhaps companies associated with the DSVET program could provide tablets to the students to make use of the MOOC platform.
Summing up, India has a great opportunity to utilise the demographic dividend and improve skills, thus providing employment opportunities to the youth. However, for capitalising this opportunity, India should look at strengthening the existing education and training system and perhaps time to learn from the Germans. Can we see an Indianised DSVET soon?

G Krishna Kumar & Vasishta Haavanur

The authors are Bangalore-based IT professionals. Views are personal
 

India's Skill Will Conundrum

By G Krishna Kumar

 

Published: 01st October 2013 07:25 AM

Sample this: 50 per cent of India’s population is below 24 years of age. India is set to become the youngest country by 2020 with an average age of 29, while all major global economies are between 37-48. India is expected to add 200 million in the working-age group of 15-64 years between 2015 and 2050.
Reports suggest that the presence of large percentage of working-age labour force, also called “demographic dividend”, could greatly stimulate growth and prosperity. How can India capitalise on the demographic dividend over the next three decades? That India needs a strong focus on skill enhancement is given. The government should take a holistic view of workforce demand-supply and support growth in existing/new industries for sustainable economic development.
In addition to the government’s role, willingness from business/industry and the people (the Gen Next) are critical in improving the talent pool and thus employability in the country.
It is extremely important that the government provides the right framework to improve education, right from the primary level. In spite of many government programmes like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, RTE and others, only 18.8% of the population are qualified above secondary level and in the rural areas, it is only 14.7%.
The enrolment rate in primary school is an encouraging 96%, but the dropout rate is rather high. A recent news report states that 80 million children drop out without completing basic schooling in India. Even worse, the dropout rate after the 10th standard is over 57%. The major reasons for the high dropout rates in primary or higher level include financial crunch at home, lack of quality teachers and infrastructure, distance between home and school, among others. Can the government enforce families receiving food security benefits to compulsorily enrol children in schools and thus reduce dropout rates?
The quality of students is a concern, their inability to solve even basic arithmetic problems especially. Children in India are subjected to rote learning. The ones in the 5-10 age group may seem smarter than their counterparts in other nations. But, when we consider those in the 15-16 bracket, the picture differs. For instance, India ranks among the last in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The poor showing is attributed to lack of application-oriented learning.
Can the government water down the over-whelming syllabus, modify it to encourage critical thinking and enable quality learning?
An ASER report suggests private schools are attracting more children in rural areas. Perhaps the government should create a framework and hand over some of the badly managed public schools to private institutions, with the right set of checks and balances should be in place.
Advancements in information and communications technology (ICT) can provide a possible “intervention” solution for improving quality of education including “teaching the teachers” through internet connectivity. Such programmes would also help strengthen concepts among students. The latest UN report says India is lagging behind in broadband penetration. The National Telecom Policy 2012’s vision of “right to broadband” is a step in the right direction. But, relevant localised content is still largely missing.
Although over 2 crore students are enrolled in high schools, there are only five or six options for pursuing an organised career growth. While a few options are oversold, awareness is lacking among the rest. Emotional quotient/intelligence quotient should be assessed for each student in 10th standard, followed up with counselling.
Despite the dropout rate, India manages to bring out lakhs of graduates/diploma and industrial training institute (ITI) degree holders. But, there are serious issues regarding employability as most graduates are unskilled or semi-skilled and lack soft skills. The government’s initiatives like the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), national vocational education qualifications framework (NVEQF) are steps in the right direction. However, for this effort to be successful and sustainable, industry should own the skill enhancement/intervention programmes. Can the new companies bill mandating corporate social responsibility (CSR) be used effectively?
CSR initiatives must be result-oriented and measurable. Perhaps, the major industry bodies in India should take the lead in driving a model and mandate companies to work closely with NSDC, NVEQF, along with universities to encourage innovation, help improve skill levels and address employability challenges. In fact, depending on demand, some vocational courses could be converted into full-fledged ITI/diploma courses. Globally, there are several examples of strong industry-academia relationship resulting in mutual benefits. India needs to replicate it.
There are companies in India supporting skill enhancements in entrepreneurship and technology. But a system for experience sharing and bringing industries together is much needed. Most companies in India would have an in-depth understanding of human resource aspects like communication and co-working skills, career progression, assessments, counselling and mentoring. As part of CSR, can these be leveraged effectively to create intervention programmes and support students in colleges/universities?
Even if we assume the government and industry have taken the right steps to improve the quality of education and skill levels, it is critical that individuals have the willingness/desire to learn. Unlike earlier, the ICT era has ensured “anytime” information, thus learning is only limited by the individual’s interest. Also, the Internet-based massive open online course platform offers unprecedented choices.
With the new-age material aspirations driving youth, as in advanced countries, we could soon face challenges of “over-entertained” youth lacking social skills and work ethics. A strong social support system including a personal mentor is much needed to help the youth prioritise and remain focused. To benefit from the demographic dividend, the government should come up with an ICT based long-term plan for addressing the skill requirements by involving key stakeholders. The combined “will” of the government, industry and individual is needed for Gen Next.
The author is vice-president at Symphony Teleca.
Email: krishnak1@outlook.com