An open letter to the MHRD, MCA and Panchayati Raj

The impact of PM’s address on Teachers Day has been powerful. Teachers are indeed the custodians of the new India that Narendra Modi spoke about. He has shown an unprecedented commitment to the cause of that vision. 

India is a US$1.8 Trn economy growing at 5% or US$90 Bn per year. The increment of US$90 Bn to its GDP as much as it accounts for an incremental demand for infrastructure, goods and services; also makes allowance for incremental budgets allocated to human resources. If we were to treat 5% of this increment as allocable to HR (both existing HR and fresh hiring), we may allocate only 50% of this US$4.5 Bn for fresh hires or US$2.25 Bn.

Considering that there are nearly 2 million graduates hitting the workforce each year the average salary for each would be US$1000 p.a.

Skilling will create a skilled workforce and it may equally add to the existing demand among the unemployed youth.

As can be surmised that the current economy is not strong enough to sustain the rising demand for jobs as it stands.

The solution to this impasse lies beyond large-scale job seeking and reversing the barrel of the telescope to create job creators or entrepreneurs. 

Young minds must be ignited differently to spur a culture of creation, innovation and entrepreneurship as an imperative part of the curriculum. The current methods only create a consumptive learner and restrain the learner’s abilities to become a creative contributor to the economy. An interesting example is a packet of potato chips with less than 60 gms potatoes in it costing less than Re0.20/-  in their raw form retailed for Rs20/- to an eager consumer. Consumptive!

It is only the creative learner who can find space in the market and put a market in that space. Creation of indigenous enterpreneurs can spot such spaces.  

There are a 100,000 Panchayats and 12,000 colleges under All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).  If the colleges are superimposed on the panchayats on an e-map of India, we can have about nine panchayats to a college. Now, if the colleges are encouraged to develop an outreach programme under their project and field work, assisted by their faculty to identify need gaps, and convert these gaps into requisite material, these materials can be contributed by the local businesses available under the CSR mandate. That way, the students will not just build their experience but also contribute to nation-building.  

True CSR would be where businesses match their commercial footprints with their CSR footprints as managed on an e-map. That is developing India in a manner that is both equitable and equanimous. 

Consumptive India, as much as it uses Twitter, has the potential of creating an indigenous social platform, akin to Twitter, if only the top 20 Indians being followed on the latter opened their accounts with the former. If Whatsapp was sold for US$19 Bn, imagine the valuation for such an Indian product!

Identification of need gaps by Colleges under Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), in the Panchayats under Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MPR) and encouragement by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to the corporates has the potential of creating a PM’s dashboard of development.  It will also encourage a smarter way of learning, doing and thinking.                          

The author is a strategy and CSR consultant