There are many in my office who sit and stare at their computer monitors all day without doing anything. Actually there is not enough work to do. From my work-experience of 2.6 years in the software industry in two companies, one very large and one medium-sized, and from what I come to know from my friends about their companies, I can confidently say that there is a great deal of disguised unemployment in the IT industry. It is just that nobody is worried about it coz the salaries are still quite high as compared to other sectors and on top of it, IT seems to be on the boom. It's creating jobs for our enormous young population. Probably, this disguised unemployment is inevitable for some time, given the fact that we have recently started rowing upstream.
We have indeed followed a unique model - of trying to grow by expanding the services sector first. But we must also start thinking of other possible areas of growth and not stay obsessed with IT forever. One may argue that there are booms in retail, energy, etc. and some revival of the manufacturing industry as well. That's correct, but the problem that is eroding our growth story is lack of adequate skills in our work-force. We have people, in numbers like nowhere else. Yet, we are not doing enough to educate and train our young population so that they can contribute efficiently. A lot of screws need to be tightened at all basic levels - of education, administration, culture and mind-sets. The government needs to set the right frameworks for the private sector work in, and to prosper by exploring and creating new opportunities, so that more and more jobs are generated for our youth without compromising the growth of the nation.
We need more responsible leaders. And for that, we need well-informed and judicious citizens. Let's make our democracy more meaningful by encouraging and electing the right people to lead us. It's time we stopped getting carried away by the age-old maladies that have been crippling our societies. We need to enlighten and empower each other and create a new and prosperous India. The world is looking at us. Let's not close our eyes.
We have indeed followed a unique model - of trying to grow by expanding the services sector first. But we must also start thinking of other possible areas of growth and not stay obsessed with IT forever. One may argue that there are booms in retail, energy, etc. and some revival of the manufacturing industry as well. That's correct, but the problem that is eroding our growth story is lack of adequate skills in our work-force. We have people, in numbers like nowhere else. Yet, we are not doing enough to educate and train our young population so that they can contribute efficiently. A lot of screws need to be tightened at all basic levels - of education, administration, culture and mind-sets. The government needs to set the right frameworks for the private sector work in, and to prosper by exploring and creating new opportunities, so that more and more jobs are generated for our youth without compromising the growth of the nation.
We need more responsible leaders. And for that, we need well-informed and judicious citizens. Let's make our democracy more meaningful by encouraging and electing the right people to lead us. It's time we stopped getting carried away by the age-old maladies that have been crippling our societies. We need to enlighten and empower each other and create a new and prosperous India. The world is looking at us. Let's not close our eyes.
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