PM Narendra Modi gears up for President Obama meet, but US yet to name ambassador

NEW DELHI: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to the US for his first summit meeting later this month, one of the more glaring absences is that of a US ambassador to India.

The US is expected to name an ambassador to India in the coming days but that does not actually mean the new envoy will be here anytime soon. The political gridlock in Washington DC has meant that there is a huge backlog of 65 ambassadorial posts across the world that are yet to be filled, because the US Senate has not been able to confirm them.

There have been several names floating around as possible envoys to India. The most high profile name in circulation for the job is Ashton Carter, who recently quit the Obama administration as deputy secretary for defence. Carter is credited with trying to effect the most comprehensive reboot of the defence relationship by working out, with former national security adviser Shivshankar Menon, a programme for co-production and co-development of defence equipment in India.

The other person in the running is Richard Verma, former assistant secretary in the state department when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. Having quit the government in 2011, he now runs the India and South Asia practice of Washington law firm Albright Stonebridge Group. Verma has been mentioned more in recent days after another possible candidate Fred Hochberg's name was dropped. Rajiv Shah, head of USAID, and reportedly close to Barack Obama, has already been touted as a possible successor.

Political nominations are having a hard time getting confirmed by the Senate, while only a few career diplomats are getting through. But even for them, the going on Capitol Hill is hard. The ambassador to Russia was named just weeks ago. Turkey has been given an interim ambassador just like India. Kathleen Stephens was named interim ambassador to India after Nancy Powell quit in May.

Powell was compelled to resign after several months of stormy ties with New Delhi. While the ostensible reason for her precipitate departure appeared to be the row over the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, there was also a feeling in Washington that she had failed to read the tea leaves about the possible victory of Narendra Modi in the May elections.

David Ignatius, columnist in the Washington Post, wrote last week, "Let's say it plainly: This is how nations lose their power and influence, when they are unable to agree even on basic matters such as diplomatic representation. The decision-making system breaks down, and the public is too bored or disunited to take action. Sadly, that's a snapshot of the United States in 2014."

Now, with the infrastructure sector on the verge of a potential boom, the demand for electricians, plumbers, fitters and welders has grown exponentially. Tata Steel, for instance, is presently setting up a 6 million ton greenfield integrated steel project at Kalinganangar, Odisha. "These skills (electricians, welders, fitters and the like) are needed in large numbers during the construction of the steel plant—some for a short duration," says an official spokesperson of the company.

There are socio-cultural barriers that prevent youth in urban and semi- urban areas from acquiring vocational skills. Dastoor says the industry needs to work with communities along with the government and the NGOs to create a buzz around acquiring these skills and according them greater prestige and importance.

Godrej has embarked on an employability initiative called Disha, under which it partners with various NGOs and training institutes across the country to help train and enhance the skills of people in various trades. Tata Projects, on the other hand, provides vocational and entrepreneurship training to the youth. It found a dire need in the market for those with basic skills like welding, electrical fitting, fabrication, construction, painting and so on.

A tie-up with international institutions like UK Welding Institute and International Paint institute was forged to ensure training courses for various tradesmen. "These are paid courses wherein corporates get their manpower trained," says Naresh Sharma, head, marketing communications, Tata Projects.

For Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), which specializes in executing complex projects in sectors such as hydel power, nuclear plants, bridges and tunnels, the requirements for labour force are significantly different. "We did not see a major gap between demand and supply because of the overall economic slowdown, specifically the negligible number of new infrastructure projects announced in the last few years.

However, given the recent uptick in the economy, we can expect the demand for labour (skilled and unskilled) to increase," says Aditya Jain, group EVP-HR, HCC.

Moorthy K Uppaluri, CEO, Randstad India, says the rise in education levels across all strata of society has led to higher aspirations. "Typically, talent for these professions is mostly experience-based as there's no ready talent from colleges. The candidates that graduate from vocational training institutes prefer to work in companies like auto-manufacturing or go abroad to the Gulf countries," says Uppaluri. He adds that high demand and growing inflation have resulted in the salaries of workers going up by an annual average of 15-20%.