'India at risk of losing out in new world economy'

India is in danger of losing its competitive edge in a rapidly changing world because a great swathe of Indian children does not have access to modern education which will give them critical-thinking skills.

This formed the crux of a lecture on social accountability, organised by the think tank Public Affairs Centre (PAC) and attended by current and retired government officers and intellectuals here on Saturday.

K Kasturirangan, former director, Isro, and the current chairman of PAC, raised the question about the quality of education that the nation's youth is being exposed to. "Today anybody can join the intellectual discourse on the future of liberal democracy" in person and on the web, he said. "But the harsh reality is that millions of people in India cannot afford this luxury. They face far more urgent problems - of education poverty, health poverty, livelihood poverty."

A recent World Bank report stated that while the possibility of robotics threatening future work opportunities was low, the lack of reskilling children and adults to the changing economy could leave some countries behind. "The frontier for skills is moving rapidly and that until countries strengthened their human capital, they will lack a workforce prepared for highly skilled jobs of the future," the report, titled 'World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work,' declared.

Selva Kumar, Secretary, Skill Development Department, which was handed the mandate of implementing the Chief Minister Yuva Kushal Yojana, said the reskilling scheme had the target to train 10,000 adults per month. Although he could not provide specifics, he offered the example of a carpenter training to be a photographer.

The PAC is due to release its study about social accountability in education in October.