Lots of today's jobs will not exist in future: Nilekani on automation

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani put a primacy on re-skilling and education overhaul as "a lot of jobs that exist today will not exist in future".

"We have to do something and make our education system far more innovative and creativity-based because in future, a lot of jobs that exist today will not exist. A lot of new jobs will get created", the former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said.

"So, people will have to go in for life-time continuous learning mode and learn new ideas and skills throughout their working career. So, the education system will have to respond with a whole new model of providing life-long education, just in time, highly personalised... so that big change is required," Nilekani told PTI.

He also said automation, machine-learning, artificial intelligence and bots are happening, both in the software and business process outsourcing sector.

"I think you are definitely going to see a lot more built on automation. So, the recruitment in this sector may not be as buoyant as a few years ago".

Asked about criticism in some quarters that India's 7-8% GDP growth is largely "jobless", Nilekani said he suggested that if one focuses on domestic services and encourages platform aggregation, jobs can be created.

"For example, somebody like Ola has a capacity to create a few hundred thousand driver entrepreneurs. So, I think you are going to see a lot more of that. And that's how job creation will happen... by aggregation on platforms," he said.