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The introductory part of this series stressed the close relationship between technological education/training, employment opportunities and competitiveness. Part 2 is devoted to India, as an example of a rising technological star with large population and high promises.

Unlike China and its manufacturing prowess, India has so far mainly specialised on the service part of the economy. For years now, call centers of many -mainly American- companies are operated in India. A good grasp of the English language, good IT skills and a number of open-thinking service companies led to an explosion that soon spread to the medical field, databases, programming and many other activities that could be undertaken at large distances from clients.

The skills that helped make this progress -do not forget that language, IT and medical skills are all a direct result of education and training- are now in short supply. Companies that set up operations in India are having the awkward problem of employee supply, with the extra twist of personnel that is not well enough educated to meet the new challenges and expectations. University degrees are not a guarantee for employers and foreign-educated scientists are not enough to fill the void.

This of course is as far as the educated minority goes. Sadly, many people in India are not educated at all, and whole villages are in many cases completely cut off from any form of communication. As BBC reports, the encouraging progress of mobile telephones and mobile Internet has convinced the Indians that like the “green revolution” of the 60s, new radical action is required.

MS Swaminathan, one of the minds behind India’s road to food self-sufficiency, is now called back in action, this time for an IT revolution. The aim is to get as many people as possible online with mobile telephones, wireless Internet, info kiosks, satellites and every mean available for the effort. It is calculated that by giving people access to information, a lot more families will seek education opportunities for the children, while distance learning is always a great weapon against isolated areas and poor people that have no financial means to seek education/training in the cities. The removal of bureaucracy is an all important factor and it is hoped that success will be of similar scale to what happened with agriculture in the 60s. Together with the technological upgrade, the new measures will be a great opportunity to eradicate deceases, offer medical advice, and offer info access for all basic and non basic human needs one can imagine.

Do you think it is a coincidence that India’s new start is planned as already described? I think it is a very good plan and will certainly take along with it young people, the future of the country. The results will be seen much later, but plans of such scale always take time…

Part 3 will discuss the UK.

Link: ElectronRun - The link between technological education, employment and competitiveness - Part 1