There has been growing concern about job creation in the context of
increase in automation and several roles becoming redundant as a result
in every industry.
There has been growing concern about job creation in the context of
increase in automation and several roles becoming redundant as a result
in every industry. The IT industry, the darling of the Indian economy,
is in the midst of assessing the requirement of talent pool in the
coming years which would mean upskilling for some and elimination of
roles for several others. Several IT services firms are bracing up to
the reality of technology shifts towards automation and from managing
legacy systems to moving towards developing digital solutions, leading
to the need to plan and execute business differently with new skills and
less resources. According to a McKinsey report, nearly half of the
workforce in the IT services companies will become ‘irrelevant’ in the
next 3-4 years. Manufacturing, banking and hospitality industry have
started experiencing change on account of deployment of robots and
Internet of Things (IoT), as a result of which the calibre of resources
and the size of talent pool required would no longer be the same as in
the current scenario.
The reality of loss of jobs has become a global phenomenon and every
country is grappling with the urgent need to find appropriate solutions.
For India, it is of top most concern due to the size of population and
the country having the largest pool of youth below 25 years. Even though
the GDP growth was 54% in the period 2005-2012, the net job creation
was only 3% with 15 million jobs having been added. By 2025 there will
be 80 million job seekers but with over 93% of the jobs continuing to be
in the informal sector, there is likely to be a gap of 50 million jobs.
As per the recent report of People Strong, India will account for the
maximum impact – a quarter of the job cuts due to automation globally by
2021. The current challenge is not just restricted to new job creation
but is also centered around the loss of existing jobs. Hence the subject
of job creation can no longer be focused around skill development alone
but needs an urgent, comprehensive and multidimensional integrated
approach that is capable of delivering transformational outcomes.
In addition to the thrust on understanding the requirements of new
skills in every sector and readying the youth for these opportunities in
a systematic manner, industry-academic co-operation will become crucial
in the coming days. With every dimension of the society and industry
being impacted by AI, machine learning and analytics, it is imperative
to embed data science in every discipline of education right from higher
secondary stage. Even today, the most innovative and path breaking
technologies emerge from the Western world. In order to foster
innovation and entrepreneurship aggressively, we would require to build
new and robust frameworks for research institutions and businesses to be
able to build healthy and purposeful partnerships. Instead of
individuals or established businesses alone bringing about innovation
and entrepreneurship, a new approach of proactively opening up the
research labs and showcasing the innovations ready for commercial
exploitation and engineering partnerships with those interested could
enable a new wave of entrepreneurship to flourish by creating new
offerings and new markets. Currently such opportunities may be
accessible only by those who work within the institutions and have
access to research projects under way but a conscious collaborative
model is required to seed millions of entrepreneurial establishments.
We need to think of new business models to prosper and succeed in the
digital world. In addition to the capitalist-entrepreneurial approaches,
since scaling of businesses require replication of capabilities and
funds, it would be meaningful to emulate Amul’s successful co-operative
model in the context of doing business digitally. Successful e-commerce
businesses, for instance, call for several shades of local nuances and
customised servicing capabilities but the technologies, processes and
partnerships required to scale the businesses could be leveraged
centrally and producers invited to participate in a co-operative model
where the returns could be shared and millions given sustainable
livelihood opportunities.
Skilling and upskilling will both continue to be extremely important and
will require to be more dynamic and pertinent to the business needs of
specific clusters. We need sharper focus on the skills required for the
digital age as well as on the temperament to be created to become
self-employed on the backbone of digital access. Digital literacy
centres being set up under the National Digital Literacy Mission should
also cater to digital livelihood creation possibilities both in the
rural and urban domains based on the requirements of the population that
could be served. We need new models of schooling, particularly for
those from low income groups where we teach children skills and concepts
that would ready them for digital occupations in 15 years of education.
The fear of not being able to find jobs or hold on to their current
jobs should be converted to positive energy by educating them and
supporting them on the possibilities of being self employed and creating
an optimistic mindset of assuming ownership for their futures. Models
like the Lighthouses in Pune where the fundamental focus
is on agency creation and determination of aspiration with the youth
should be emulated elsewhere in the country as a stepping stone towards
sustainable livelihoods. India has been a country which over several
centuries has learnt to cope with extreme challenges with its will to
adapt and survive. This DNA should support the next generation to
leapfrog on the strength of its demographic dividend, the digital access
and the immense possibilities of innovation.
The writer is CEO, Global Talent Track, a corporate training solutions company
Source: Financial express
Source: Financial express
