Govt should take measures to cultivate spirit of entrepreneurship among youth

It is therefore imperative for India to promote ‘entrepreneurship’ among youth for which the government should provide an ecosystem with which it can promote and nurture the skills of young Indians

With the country’s population growing consistently and with many people being in the prime age looking to get formal employment or being involved in any productive economic activity, it becomes imperative that the government and the private sector probe to be effective enablers on this front. The median age in India is 28 years.

These statistics show that India can use the population advantage to productive levels in its quest for Viksit Bharath and also to become a developed economy by 2047. This is possible by tapping the force of youth power and their potential for the betterment of the nation.

This golden opportunity can be seized to optimal levels if the country puts in place an integrated and well-developed education system in addition to going about skilling programmes that suit the new opportunities that come with the fastest growth of the economy.

The digital transformative journey driven by effective adoption of AI, ML, digital public infrastructure and one of the best ecosystem for Startup India also implies that there is growing need for qualified students and youth to be given exposure and special skilling in current both domestic and global requirements This is the type of talent that corporates, public and private institutions prefer.

Many countries are looking up to India for specialised personnel and there is a large scope for Global Capability Centres (GCCs) both in India and abroad. In India there are around 1600 GCCs and the figure is likely to increase by 20% by 2025. India is one of the most sought after nations due to its robust IT infrastructure, skilled workforce and mature ecosystem. These GCCs are enhancing the tech and non-tech capabilities, with the priority areas being GenAI, AI/ML, data analytics and cloud computing, among others, in order to promote innovation and efficiency. These centres are investing on knowledge, skilling and upskilling so that the talented young human resources suit the global requirements.

As per GCC Quarterly Landscape Q4'23, 40% of corporate headcount works out of GCCs; 30% of GCCs gave their KPIs LinkedIn to business outcomes, and 55% of enterprise technology products are developed in GCCs. The report further adds that India GCCs host 60+ CIOs and SVP leaders, spearheading their functions at the global level.

The report states that professionals holding global roles in GCCs are currently at 5000, which is likely to grow at 29.2% CAGR to 30,000 by 2030. It is necessary to build up key capabilities in areas of digital capabilities like AI, MI, data analytics, loud computing, robotics process automation, cyber security, traditional tech capabilities like Application Development and Maintenance (ADM), IT infrastructure Management, and Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) and non-tech capabilities like Finance and Accounting (F&A), Human Resource Management (HRM), Marketing, Supply Chain Management and Logistics. There will be lot of opportunities to set up more GCCs in the country as India has the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, with 1,12,718 DPIIT recognised startups as of December 2023.

It will be difficult to provide formal employment in the government for the growing requirements in India even though there will be opportunities in specialised skills. It is therefore imperative for India to promote ‘entrepreneurship’ among youth for which the government should provide an ecosystem with which it can promote and nurture the skills of young Indians.

The ease of doing business, newer areas of education and skill building, providing better access to equity and funding for innovation and new ideas are all essential to achieve the goals. Along with creating a specialised fund for such entrepreneurship both at the central and state level, it must be ensured that a similar initiative should be pursued by corporates by providing equity support to their vendors and suppliers, who are micro and small scale industries, or inculcate the entrepreneur spirit among rural and semi-urban youth, who, with the equity support, can become corporate’s supplier or a marketing extension branch.

The government can initiate a scheme to ensure that the corporate sector also promote these initiatives while duly considering some for the corporate houses, which emulate the government example. This will certainly create better environment and will mark the full use of skills and capabilities of youth that can, in turn, boost the GDP growth rate.

Access to equity and credit is essential for youth, who can go about charting their individual career path. This will enable to India march towards Viksit Bharath faster.

It is necessary for us to ensure that more number of youngsters take up entrepreneurship and make a mark with their successes.

As per a report, there are approximately 594 million entrepreneurs in the world today, which represents approximately 10.4% of the global adult population. As per this data, India emerges the leader with 104.2 million entrepreneurs followed by China with 64 million, and the United States with 54 million. However it is be noted that despite having a large number of entrepreneurs, India has a relatively lower GDP per capita of $ 2,388.60, which suggests that India in spite of having this advantage reports lower wealth per individual compared to other countries. It also suggests that given additional equity available through the ecosystem suggested earlier, these entrepreneurs can succeed faster and better and it will fasten the process of realisation of a developed India.

The efforts to expand our manufacturing base with PLI schemes and other facilities should enable better prospects for new micro and small, and medium industries, additional clusters focussed on new sunrise industries and new product development for exports, which are all put together will result in more entrepreneurial opportunities.

In this journey, equal or greater opportunities should be provided for women entrepreneurs with a focus on greater women participation in economic engagement. Such an economic empowerment of women will enhance household income and savings.

(The author is former Chairman & Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank)