18 February, 2017: Sahay ’17, the annual social summit organized by Vikasana, the social impact club at IIM Bangalore, brought together industry chieftains such as Pritha Dutt (Empower Pragati), Maharaja Gokulavasan (RuralShores Business Services Pvt. Ltd), Poonam Sinha (NIESBUD), Anupama Gowda (Workbench Projects), and Dipesh Sutariya (Enable India) to shed light on the theme of ‘Upskill and Upscale – Employment Generation and Skill Development in India’.
IIMB faculty member Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan set the context for the event by stating that skilling people for India meant skilling people for the world. She emphasized the importance of recognizing that there is going to emerge a situation where there will be a demand in the global labour market rather than in the local labour market, for local skills. She raised the pressing question of how one had to bring forth the informal path dependencies to public and social sector interventions. “Scale comes from scale structures and not efficiency-based structures,” she observed.
Pritha Dutt, from Empower Pragati, delivered the keynote address. “If we do not skill the growing labour force, the demographic dividend will turn into a demographic disaster,” she warned, adding that channelization and formal recognition of a skillset mattered because, without them, one would stick to a narrow geography and prospects would depend on just contacts and not the skillset itself.
Maharaja Gokulavasan, from RuralShores Business Services Pvt. Ltd., spoke about people based out of rural India delivering telecom, industry services to some of the biggest telecom providers in the country. Taking the participants through the journey of the organization, he elaborated on the nuances of teaching for skill building and the challenges faced during that process.
Taking the conversation forward, Amit Gupta, Founder, Callidus Social Enterprises, gave an interesting insight into the need for bridging the existing “business-society” gap. He emphasized that demographic dividend does not mean people, it meant productive people, and productive people were to fulfill the three ‘e’s - education, employment and employability. He also spoke on the “unholy trinity” of cost, scale and technological disruptions outpacing capacity of individuals and organizations to evolve.
The second half of the talk series began with a panel discussion that was organized to discuss the reach of skill development in society. Panellists included Sudha Srinivasan, People Operations, Nudge Foundation,
B S Raghupathy, Joint Director, KGMSDC, Nataraj A S, HR, HAL and Dipesh Sutariya, Co-Founder, CEO, Enable India. They highlighted the critical need for scaling up concerted efforts to enhance skill development in India. The context of the discussion was the country's transition to a knowledge-based economy, through the creation of a professional skilled workforce. Also discussed were government efforts, especially in the recent past, in the arena of skill development through various schemes and programmes, management structures and processes. The challenges encountered within these initiatives were discussed as well. Further, pathways were identified for countering these challenges and effective implementation of these programmes.
The panel discussion was followed by a talk by Poonam Sinha, Head, Regional Centre, Niesbud, on how NIESBUD is helping the marginalized sections of society and other backward classes by promoting self-employment.
The day concluded with a crisp and informative session on skilling through digital DIY by Anupama Gowda, Co-Founder/CCO, Workbench Projects, where she talked about how innovative industries and high-growth jobs require more skilled and empowered workers with the ability to respond flexibly to complex problems, communicate effectively, manage information, work in teams and produce new knowledge. She emphasized on how Digital DIY is envisaged as a creative practice, which may engage a wider audience in the development of these skills, thereby increasing their self-confidence and empowerment.
With relevant questions raised, the event was a great platform for the participants to interact with the speakers and gain an insight into the opportunities and challenges in training individuals and creating new jobs in India.
18 February, 2017: Sahay ’17, the annual social summit organized by Vikasana, the social impact club at IIM Bangalore, brought together industry chieftains such as Pritha Dutt (Empower Pragati), Maharaja Gokulavasan (RuralShores Business Services Pvt. Ltd), Poonam Sinha (NIESBUD), Anupama Gowda (Workbench Projects), and Dipesh Sutariya (Enable India) to shed light on the theme of ‘Upskill and Upscale – Employment Generation and Skill Development in India’.
IIMB faculty member Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan set the context for the event by stating that skilling people for India meant skilling people for the world. She emphasized the importance of recognizing that there is going to emerge a situation where there will be a demand in the global labour market rather than in the local labour market, for local skills. She raised the pressing question of how one had to bring forth the informal path dependencies to public and social sector interventions. “Scale comes from scale structures and not efficiency-based structures,” she observed.
Pritha Dutt, from Empower Pragati, delivered the keynote address. “If we do not skill the growing labour force, the demographic dividend will turn into a demographic disaster,” she warned, adding that channelization and formal recognition of a skillset mattered because, without them, one would stick to a narrow geography and prospects would depend on just contacts and not the skillset itself.
Maharaja Gokulavasan, from RuralShores Business Services Pvt. Ltd., spoke about people based out of rural India delivering telecom, industry services to some of the biggest telecom providers in the country. Taking the participants through the journey of the organization, he elaborated on the nuances of teaching for skill building and the challenges faced during that process.
Taking the conversation forward, Amit Gupta, Founder, Callidus Social Enterprises, gave an interesting insight into the need for bridging the existing “business-society” gap. He emphasized that demographic dividend does not mean people, it meant productive people, and productive people were to fulfill the three ‘e’s - education, employment and employability. He also spoke on the “unholy trinity” of cost, scale and technological disruptions outpacing capacity of individuals and organizations to evolve.
The second half of the talk series began with a panel discussion that was organized to discuss the reach of skill development in society. Panellists included Sudha Srinivasan, People Operations, Nudge Foundation,
B S Raghupathy, Joint Director, KGMSDC, Nataraj A S, HR, HAL and Dipesh Sutariya, Co-Founder, CEO, Enable India. They highlighted the critical need for scaling up concerted efforts to enhance skill development in India. The context of the discussion was the country's transition to a knowledge-based economy, through the creation of a professional skilled workforce. Also discussed were government efforts, especially in the recent past, in the arena of skill development through various schemes and programmes, management structures and processes. The challenges encountered within these initiatives were discussed as well. Further, pathways were identified for countering these challenges and effective implementation of these programmes.
The panel discussion was followed by a talk by Poonam Sinha, Head, Regional Centre, Niesbud, on how NIESBUD is helping the marginalized sections of society and other backward classes by promoting self-employment.
The day concluded with a crisp and informative session on skilling through digital DIY by Anupama Gowda, Co-Founder/CCO, Workbench Projects, where she talked about how innovative industries and high-growth jobs require more skilled and empowered workers with the ability to respond flexibly to complex problems, communicate effectively, manage information, work in teams and produce new knowledge. She emphasized on how Digital DIY is envisaged as a creative practice, which may engage a wider audience in the development of these skills, thereby increasing their self-confidence and empowerment.
With relevant questions raised, the event was a great platform for the participants to interact with the speakers and gain an insight into the opportunities and challenges in training individuals and creating new jobs in India.