New technologies crucial to transform India into a powerhouse of quality human resource
Next year, the average age of India’s population will be 29 years as against 40 years in the United States, 46 years in Europe and 47 years in Japan. What’s more, during the next couple of decades, as stated in the National Policy for Skills Development, 2015, while the labour force in the developed nations will decline by 4%, that in India will increase by a whopping 32%. Considering that the number of people who enter the work force every year is estimated to be close to 26 million, how do we harness this demographic dividend? Economists believe that if skilled appropriately and strategically, India’s burgeoning youth brigade may well add a significant 2% to the country’s GDP.
The bad news is that even today India faces a crunch of highly skilled workers. That only 4.69% of its total workforce has formal skill training, is a cold fact. In contrast, the figures for UK, Germany, US, Japan and South Korea are 68%, 75%, 52%, 80% and 96% respectively. With unemployment rate of its people in the 15-24 age group, touching nearly10%, India needs to act fast.
On its part, the Union Government has announced several well-meaning measures. Creation of an exclusive Ministry for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is truly a visionary step. However, much more needs to be done, if we want to prepare and propel our youth to contribute in a meaningful and sustainable manner in the country’s march toward being a $5 trillion economy.
A National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) study spells out that India will need an additional 109.73 million skilled workers by 2022, and that too only in the 24 key sectors that are aligned with NSDC. To skill and create jobs for this humongous mass of youngsters is critical. A recent article has highlighted how India’s systematic skill gap may potentially result in an opportunity cost of approximately $1.97 trillion. Speed and scale are of essence if India needs to be transformed into a powerhouse of quality human resource. And only new and emerging technologies may provide the requisite solution.
The task is onerous but not impossible considering that the connectivity scenario in India is changing by the day. Some studies reveal mindboggling numbers that corroborate India’s claim to digital fame. According to a recent Kantar report, 87% of half a billion Internet users in the country are defined as regular users. Of these, 293 million are active Internet users and are from the urban setting, and another 200 million are from rural India.
The number of smartphone users in India too is growing with remarkable alacrity. It is expected to double—from 468 million in 2017 to 859 million by 2022, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.9%, according to an ASSOCHAM-PWC joint study. Given the diffusion and affordability of devices, most youngsters are likely to be connected to personal computing devices by 2025.
Use of cell phone cuts across gender, caste, class and literacy levels, and the users really do not need any tutoring to learn at least the rudimentary skills. Don’t we often find a toddler fiddling with a smartphone or a tab correctly, and without any guidance? In fact, a couple of decades ago, Dr Sugata Mitra, a professor of education technology at the Newcastle University, England, had conducted an experiment, globally known as the “Hole-in-thewall” demonstration, on slum kids in New Delhi’s Kalkaji area. He had conclusively proved that most illiterate kids learn to access information graphics all by themselves, when given a free access to workable machines and without any supervision whatsoever. So connectivity or handling of technology is not pressing issues at all.
Adopting emerging technologies could be a quantum leap forward for our skill ecosystem. That technology could be leveraged to scale up training facilities; enable access to farflung hamlets and increase the cost-effectiveness of the training delivery mechanism is a reality. What is the cost of data today—a meagre Rs 100 per month? Moreover, 600,000 of our villages are connected with optical fibres and 98% of these have Wi-fi. Note that with 1.7 million registered users, India is the second largest revenue earner for Coursera, the American online learning platform, next to the US.
A few players in our skill space are already experimenting with emerging technologies to enhance, automate and scale up their operations. In our rustic set ups even skills like welding, driving etc., are being taught via video conferencing and with the use of simulators, and the assessment is online.
In early 2014, Neeraj Gupta, founder of Meru Cabs in Mumbai, set up Motor Education and Training Association (META), a social initiative to skill cab and auto drivers across India. During the past five years, META has successfully trained over 5,000 female and 15,000 male drivers using simulator training to ensure that these drivers get accustomed to the basics of driving and driving conditions in a classroom environment. The trainee drivers get a firsthand feel of the car and the experience of using clutch, brakes, gear and steering wheel in a variety of driving conditions, without having the risk of causing accidents on the crowded streets. Simulator training not only instils confidence in a novice driver to drive a vehicle but also enables her/him to clear the stringent driving test without any hassles. Several women have become successful micro entrepreneurs and are able to earn a respectable livelihood for themselves and their families.
AMMACHI Labs and The Centre for Women Empowerment and Gender Equality at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kerala, have developed engaging and innovative tools to train, enhance and augment skills. They are one of the pioneers in the world for developing cost-effective simulators for transferring vocational traits. They use technologies like Haptics for training in manual skills; virtual reality for immersive learning; machine learning to measure human performance, and also create smart software tutors.
Amrita Progressive Training Assistance using Haptics simulation (APTAH) is a cost effective haptic simulator that can train a person to handle over 19 hand-held and powered tools vital for several vocations. The simulator provides audio, visual and haptic cues that help even a freshman to use the tools effectively without a human interface. This multi-tool haptic trainer could potentially replace traditional training tools and materials used during the initial phases of skill training. APTAH currently simulates complex machinery and has been used to train the first certified women plumbers of India, among other things.
A labour intensive and costly process, coconut dehusking is a crucial step in the horticulture economy in coconut rich states like Kerala. The productivity of coconut farms may take a dip as the state faces an acute shortage of farm labour. To counter this problem, AMMACHI has developed a cable driven parallel robot for automating the process of coconut de-husking in large and medium sized farms. The robot assists the mechanised de-husking process by fetching coconuts from heaps aided by computer vision and then autonomously loads them into a de-husking machine’s hopper. The machine is both portable and reconfigurable.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a huge potential in skilling and is estimated to add more than US $1 trillion to the Indian economy by 2035. AI will help automate several functions. Importantly, it will provide correct feedback regarding a learner merely by observing her/his learning patterns. The feedback may be used in evolving a tailor-made learning package and process, and also in setting the pace of learning for an individual.
Augmented and virtual reality platforms are hugely cost effective in transferring skills that require expensive infrastructure and tools. These platforms have the wherewithal to replicate a real-life work situation within the training centre, which is beneficial to both the industry as well as the worker. A candidate picks up solid basic skills here, which help him/her to deliver on job from day one, reducing errors and risks attached to it.
Hyperbaric or underwater welding is a tough and dangerous job. These welders work at elevated pressures repairing pipelines, offshore oil drilling rigs, ships, dams, nuclear power facilities, etc., and hence command huge salaries. Many Indian underwater welders receive superlative training in Mexico in an artificially-created environment. This could be replicated in our home-grown labs.
Another potential candidate for adoption of emerging technologies is our aviation industry. By 2024, India is expected to become the third largest aviation market in the world in terms of passengers. According to figures given out by the Directorate of Civil Aviation in October this year, our domestic air passenger market will log in a growth of almost 9% in the present year. This means as its horizon expands, the industry will require skilled pilots for navigating the incremental traffic. Emerging technologies can be a boon in such a scenario. It can provide precise training to maximum number of people in shortest possible time in this and such highly critical vocations.
The drawback of course, is the initial high cost of implementing these technologies, which provides a deterrent factor against their adoption. Things may not appear rosy if we go purely by the monetary cost of developing a technology and its potential profit. But what is also important is to calculate the opportunity cost of not having kept abreast of the latest development. Perhaps the government should be more proactive in crafting appropriate strategies through its skill development arm to encourage an ecosystem of futuristic teaching and learning.
Government should be more proactive in crafting strategies through its skill development arm to encourage an ecosystem of futuristic teaching and learning.