The Hindu Business Line : Paradox of scarcity amidst plenty

The Eleventh Plan (2007-2012) for India has been launched with due ceremony. The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, put the finger on the crux when he declared, while briefing the media: “It is now time for its implementation”. He can say that again, for implementation is the biggest blind spot that bedevils all pronouncements however fervently made.

It goes without saying that, projections for the next five years can be properly judged only when set against actual achievements of the last Plan. One hopes that before giving its approval, the NDC had a chance to examine the score cards of the various Ministries with reference to past allocations.

Implementation, in its turn, is not confined to only Government and public sector activities. In the kind of integrated economic order that has emerged, and especially following deregulation and liberalisation, one has necessarily to take a holistic view of the nature and pace of performance of all the players on the national scene.

On this premise, there is a dark and ominous threat to implementation looming on the horizon, to which neither the Plan document nor the NDC seems to have paid the needed attention.To put it starkly, India is going to be up against an acute shortage on the manpower front. It will not be on account of numbers. There is no dearth of students coming out of India’s schools and colleges, and professional institutions, which are churning out, as in an assembly line, untold numbers of degree-holders of all descriptions.

The crisis India will face will be one of scarcity in the midst of plenty. It will have to do, not with availability or affordability, but with employability and suitability of those passing out. Here is an interesting experience I had while chairing a committee to select a law professor for a university. The candidate short-listed had a Master of Laws degree claiming to have scored 82 per cent. I asked him to mention the Writs mentioned in the Constitution and their purpose. Believe it or not, he had no clue. Such persons make it through the State Public Service Commissions to become judicial officers and progress by various means to positions of judges. What quality of administration of justice can one expect of them?

Divides and imbalances

Those in the higher reaches of management of a number of enterprises are fuming over the poor calibre of persons with even engineering degrees who are seen to be out of depth in basic engineering functions. In fact, a novel idea has been mooted that the engineering course should be compressed to two or two-and-a-half years and the students should spend the balance of three years or so working in industrial establishments of their choice, such as telecom, banking and so on, so as to hone their capabilities.

The problem is compounded by bright students finding doors shut against them for various reasons and leaving India to seek their fortunes elsewhere. The shortage of knowledge workers in 2010 is estimated at 5 lakhs, while the total demand for IT professionals, expected to exceed 11 lakhs in 2008, with no prospect in sight of supply of even half the quantum. This is going to make all projections of growth and revenues in the IT-enabled services sector go awry.

Thus, expanding the educational facilities and creating jobs alone will not do. The available manpower should also be fit for the jobs created. It is time the Planning Commission undertook, in conjunction with the concerned Ministries, the NASSCOM and federations of commerce and industry, a comprehensive effort aimed at rectifying the factors putting the anticipated growth rates at risk.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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