By 2030 India To Have Largest Population Of Youth

On the celebratory occasion of ISB’s (Indian School of Business) 15th anniversary at Mohali campus, honorable President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee and Union Minister of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Mr. Prakash Javadekar addressed the institute’s faculty, alumni and students.
While attempting to figure out the key takeaways, a word of caution acquired prominence from Mr. Mukherjee’s and Mr. Javadekar’s speech. By 2030, as Mr. Mukherjee states, 600 million youth under twenty five, will be added to India’s population. It can prove to be an asset and generate enormous wealth in India and the world, provided they are trained, educated, skills imparted and they becoming competitive. However, if the educational institutions failed to do so, the demographic dividend might flip its side towards demographic disaster.

Two obvious question springs: are India’s mushrooming educational institutions ready? What sort of changes or modifications should an institutional leader make to contribute into the demographic dividend? The President recalls the noble laureates of India and expresses, “From 1931 onwards, no one from India except C.V Raman received Noble Prize working in an Indian University. After that more than 85 years have passed. Not a single Indian working in Indian University have received this distinction working in an Indian university.” Dr. Amartya Sen, Dr. Har Gobind Khorana and other Indian Nobel laureates had to continue their research and work in foreign universities. The primary reason, he emphasizes, is dearth of conducive environment and appropriate atmosphere in majority of Indian universities.

His appeal to ‘improve quality’ in more than 753 universities, 36000 colleges and several other institutions is reinforced in Mr. Javadekar’s speech about the dream of creating ’20 World Class Universities’. Mr. Javadekar articulates Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of quality education and academic freedom through National Institutional Ranking Framework to list top 10 world class public universities and 10 world class private universities of India.
In context to the commemorative speeches by distinguished guests, Pradeep Singh, CEO of ISB, Mohali campus shares how ISB students and faculties contribute to demographic dividend.

Q: How are you gearing up for the demographic dividend?
A: ISB, from its inception, has been engaging the youth and making them ready for the world. Students who are interested to become entrepreneurs are given a favourable environment to nurture their skills at the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. That is how ISB has more than 400 startups. On the other hand, students who are interested in academics are given equally conducive environment for research at the Institute.

Q: Quality of teachers and professors at the mushrooming institutions are increasingly degrading. How do you see your institution in righting the wrong?
A: The Centre for Learning and Management Practice (CLMP) is responsible for the capacity building in the area of teaching, learning, and management practice. This centre aims at imparting training through case study based classes, similar to that of premier management universities. CLMP creates world class case studies based in India to make it more relevant and contextualized. This centre has more than 160 to 170 India based case studies. We look forward to partner with more management institutes in future to mentor and share our learning processes and materials.