Talent crunch arresting India's growth: Vijay Mukhi

Mumbai, Jul 6: India will not be in a position to maintain its seat at the high altar of business power if urgent measures were not taken to set right the training infrastructure which has collapsed, a senior IT professional has commented Dr Vijay Mukhi, Chairing the Information Technology Committee of the Indian Merchant Chambers, in a clarion call to restructure the training facilities in the country said, in a statement that for the first time since independence, India Inc was crying out for good people. ''We are not finding enough people to fuel our knowledge growth,'' he said, adding that the only thing that was stopping the country's growth was that the country did not have sufficient educated people to fuel its growth even as India was poised to be the technology knowledge capital of the world after being crowned a software superpower, then the outsourcing capital of the world.

He said, ''There are a lot of issues that have resulted in our education system dying and we need to squarely face up to them and confront all the sacred cows that we meet along the way. The country needs us to catch the bulls by the horns and set things right yesterday and not today. Time is running out. We have all waited too long and seen the death of our educational system in front of our own eyes. The rest of the world is envious of our success and will not wait for us to set our education house in order.'' He said the foremost change in mindset should be to shed the thought that education was a social activity, not a profit activity in the country. Unless educational institutions make money, they would simply not be able to serve society in any way.

''It is the lack of funds that have made sure that not only do the best teachers not join this world but even infrastructure investments are not a fraction of what the education industry needs,'' he said, adding, ''it is a miracle that in spite of what education we have given our people, we have been able to conquer the world. If we give our people quality education, see what heights our country would then rise to.'' He said while most of the sectors had been liberalised, the government was maintaining a stronglehold of controls over education.

He said, ''Something that is so important to our country's future cannot be decided by Governments and a few. We have a lot of other social and political problems that controls in education have thrown up like reservations. We have a major problem brewing here as the pie is too small and hence everyone is fighting for the same small number of seats. The Government can solve a lot of these problems by simply allowing more schools of excellence to come up. What they should and must do is, it's their duty as government to uplift all sections of society, to make sure that quality education is given to all. The way things are moving no one is the victor, we all lose.''

UNI