To prepare for disruption: India must focus on improving its talent ranking

At a recent leadership retreat organised by All India Management Association (AIMA), its president Mohandas Pai spoke of a critical need for Indian industry. “We have seen many revolutions in India. But we are not totally prepared for the fourth Industrial Revolution,” he told a gathering of senior industry professionals at the AIMA gathering.

The term ‘fourth industrial revolution’ refers to a set of technologies that include Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, artificial intelligence, 3D printing and data science. Together they are changing almost every aspect of our lives including health, education, manufacturing, services and agriculture.

Pai says that India has a steep learning curve ahead, if it is to harness the best that technologies have to offer. Smart learning is also essential to mitigate the negative impact of redundant skill sets. Corporates, government departments and professionals are not being agile enough to cope with the changes being brought about by technology. “We have to invest in preparing ourselves for rapid transformation,” Pai says. “This involves changing our mindset and focusing on improving our competencies”.

Corporations have to invest in new technology-based processes while ensuring that their teams get relevant training in new skills. Individuals have to reassess their skills to ensure that they don’t become redundant.

Some changes are underway already. Like many global professionals, Indians are flocking to get new skills on various online platforms and educational institutions.

Executive education by global business schools and domestic management institutions are on the rise. In an interesting trend, the market for online education is growing in strength. A study by KPMG and Google done earlier this year indicates that India’s online education market will be $1.96 billion by 2021 from just $ 247 million in 2016. The number of users will grow from 1.6 million to 9.6 million over the same period. Within this, the biggest category is reskilling and online certifications. Experts say that there is a rising demand for new subjects like machine learning, understanding artificial intelligence, data science and innovation. Professionals who have recently begun their careers to those who have spent more than two decades are equally concerned about their future. Companies are now more sensitive to on-the-job skilling than ever before.

All this is good news for India. This indicates that professionals and companies are preparing for a new world of skills and competencies.

The scale of change is not enough, however. India ranks pretty low on the World Talent Ranking done by eminent business school IMD at Lausanne, Switzerland. In 2016, India’s ranking among 63 countries was 54. Even if it improves marginally this year, but it will still place India at a low level in the world. IMD assesses the methods used to attract and retain talent by companies. It also assesses education, training and apprenticeships.

On this, IMD adds a layer of two decades of historical data to arrive at the final ranking. This should be a matter of concern for policymakers and industry leaders in India.

Even though there is increasing individual effort in improving skills, the education ecosystem has not been agile enough to focus on new technologies. The system for training focuses on degrees and skills but not necessarily competencies. Most large corporations have to spend resources and effort on fresh graduates. The Infotech sector is well known for running its own training programmes. Thankfully, the sector has recognised the need for focusing on new technology platforms. As software and service business plateau, AI and IoT- based solutions enabling skills are being promoted.

Asia generally lags behind Europe in talent ranking. Exceptional talent tends to leave countries like India for better options in Europe and US.

India needs to work on its talent ranking as assiduously as it does for the Ease of Doing Business ranking. India has done a lot to rise on the ranking of ease of doing business, but is yet to focus on building its depth of talent. India may have millions of young and educated professionals, but their quality hasn’t improved. The level of unemployability is high and is likely to get worse with the spread of fourth industrial revolution technologies. The Ministry of Human Resource Development should study talent ranking of institutions like IMD and begin an effort to address the problems. As it is, India ranks low on higher education ranking. Even if we ignore the global comparison, no Indian university is among the top 25 Asian universities as ranked by The Times Higher Education Asia Rankings 2017. China, South Korea and Japan dominate this ranking.

Coping with technology-led disruption will require immense investment in talent and competencies. This responsibility will have to be shared by individuals, companies and even the government. Without a focus on improving skills and credentials, India will struggle to survive the onslaught of the fourth Industrial Revolution. Technology needs talent. India needs both.

The author is an economic analyst and author of Kranti Nation: India and The Fourth Industrial Revolution