Data source: The Economic Times magazine

 

Time and again, India's demographic dividend has been touted as one of the key drivers for India's growth in the future. But this does not have much meaning if its people are not equipped with the requisite skills required to get employed. Further, there seems to be a considerable gap between the syllabus taught at current educational institutes and what the industry requires. Lack of focus on innovation and research has been cited as the main culprit for this. Indeed, as today's chart of the day shows, India has only 150 research professionals per million people, meaning that it is way behind many of its peers. And unless steps are not taken to correct this, it could prove to be its undoing in the longer term. Some l eading companies have started to realise the importance of research and are taking proactive steps to form tie-ups with institutes to set up research hubs in the country. On a much macro basis, the government also needs to divert much of its unproductive expenditure towards more productive areas which include education, healthcare, among others.