Meanwhile, owing to excellent opportunities that presented itself from 1991 onwards, thanks to the liberalization led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India’s growth has taken off against the backdrop of a surging global knowledge market, where workers are becoming more mobile and highly prized. India is wonderfully placed to take advantage of this and for global and Indian companies looking for large number of high quality and affordable talent, India seems to have it all.

I have had the opportunity to watch this up close- the bright, young engineers and analysts across our infosys campuses have, over the last two decades, drawn the world’s capital, attention and admiration. Infosys Technologies has created a large facility for global education, both in leadership development and technology education in mysore. Infosys invested close to $500 million to enable the orientation and rigorous technical training where fresh graduates are taught to make the transition from the academic to the corporate environment.

Currently, several Confederation of Indian industries (CII)-led initiatives are underway to created a bridge between the employers and educational institutions, and these are looking in to the issues preventing access to higher education for people from remote areas of the country or those deprived of education due to economic factors. The policy-level changes required to make it possible are being worked upon. The industry is keen to partner with the government and educational institutions to plan and track implementation o the policies and make them more efficient and practical.

The strength of a large pool of young workers can quickly turn into a weakness if India fails to implement effective policies in india education and health, and create sufficient opportunities for work and income. Today, only 13% of our young population enrolls for higher education in india. As a result India is already experiencing constraints in its access to skilled labour.

Allocation of funds from the government and the 11th plan, Nearly 19% of the budget is allocated for education, which is quite a ramp up from the 7.7% in the previous plan and expenditure on higher education is, for the first time in decades, set to go over 1% of GDP. This enthusiasm is a long overdue acknowledgement of the immense value human capital holds in India’s changing economy.

Single Regulatory Authority

There is a need for entry of private university in higher education and de-regulation in the current system. At the National knowledge commission, we had made some recommendation for regulation, which included eliminating the regulatory roles of the confusing array of statutory bodies such as the UGC and the AICTE, and replacing them with a ‘super regulator’ in the form of single independent, regulatory authority for higher education in india. Such a body would bring about uniform standards and a transparent system of regulation, recognized by any university in India. For students, a mechanism like National Information Utilities, created to keep track of student loans, along with one to created to keep track of student loans, along with one to created a portable credit system for higher education, would greatly improve both access to and quality of higher education.