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Skilling Offset: Building Skills While Building India

I ndia is building at a historic scale—smart cities, highways, metro systems, logistics hubs, Industrial hubs, airports, renewable energy parks and digital infrastructure, all expanding rapidly. These projects are growth engines, catalyzing sectors like hospitality and tourism, healthcare, manufacturing, renewable energy etc and other supporting essentials. But while we pour concrete, lay tracks, and raise skylines, we must ask: A re we building people relatively at the same scale? India, with all its resources deployed on ground, supported by the National Skill Policies of 2009, 2015 and now with 2025 on the anvil, has not yet been able to achieve its full potential. There are several challenges, which readers are well aware of, however, a few critical ones worth highlighting are, (a) need for a credible Labour Market Information System (LMIS),      (b ) lack of serious Industry connect including industry participation, particularly in the host of Government (both Centr...
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Waste Management in India: Skill vs Will Issue

India is on the fast track to becoming a developed nation, with a booming economy, rapid urbanization, and ambitious growth targets. However, solid waste management continues to be a dampener. There are of course exceptional islands of excellence worth emulating. Still, inspite of the Swatch Bharat Campaign, mass awareness, adoption of good practices and technology integration remains limited. It is estimated that every day, urban centers in India generate about 150,000 tons of solid waste, with a broad breakup of organic waste 40 to 60%, recyclable 10 to 15%, plastic 8 to12%, inert 5 to 8% and hazardous 2 to 3%, of which only 70-75% is collected, and even less—around 20-25%—is actually treated. This stark gap is not just a challenge of infrastructure or technology but also of skill and will, both at the Govt at all levels and the public at large. While technical "skills" in solid waste management (SWM) remain limited, the "will" to address these gaps comprehensivel...
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My Experiences in Afghanistan -Part 3

I am writing this in continuation to my previous articles, viz; Skill Development:  Lessons from Afghanistan (1) and Skill Development:  Lessons from Afghanistan (2) in case you missed them earlier: Read on further…. Another learning from the past. The India Skills centre was approved to be setup on 28 Aug 2005 through a joint statement of the two heads of the States. The entire team was overjoyed imagining what it would be like. The team made several visits to Kabul in quick succession, essentially to establish liaison with the concerned people in the Afghanistan Government, visit the training centres set up by other countries like South Korea, Japan and Iraq, visit several construction sites to understand the live issues and skill needs. These visits gave us good perspective of what must be done and what should be avoided and why. The final go ahead from the Government was received after a detailed process of budgeting and re-budgeting and responding to queries of...
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