Good work, Toyota

Toyota has decided to adopt 40 more industrial training institutes (ITIs), in addition to the 16 they already work with, in order to upgrade the talent pool from which it will draw its workforce. It is commendable. What is not so commendable is that companies have to scrounge for skills. One might argue that what Toyota is doing is not unique.

Some 10% of India���s 5,000 odd ITIs have been adopted for upgradation, with industry chambers CII and Ficci taking forward the then FM P Chidambaram���s 2007 Budget initiative to upgrade 1,396 ITIs into centres of excellence in partnership with the private sector. Toyota���s scheme had started even before this initiative and follows its worldwide practice. Subsequently, the prime minister launched a national skills mission, in which various ministries of the Centre, industry associations, state governments and training institutions are supposed to collaborate to make India the skills capital of the world.

New Delhi is getting skilled, indeed, in launching ever new schemes but whether Indians are getting skilled where it matters remains a matter of conjecture. The robust proposal for the government to periodically report to the nation the progress it has made in implementing various schemes, contained in the President���s June 4 address outlining the new government���s policy perspective, yet remains to be put into practice.

Fast growth, competitiveness and social stability depend on skill development. India���s industrial growth is picking up at a time when industry���s ability to absorb unskilled rural migrants has been lost in history. To compete in the open domestic economy, leave alone the global market, companies need to achieve standards that can be delivered only by trained manpower working on sophisticated machines that run to precise algorithms.

Even in the service sector, workers need a whole lot of skills to become part of the modern economy, even if it is confined to social graces and discipline. Untrained, unemployable youth can easily turn to crime or be mobilised by political parties that thrive on hatred of ���the other.��� Skill development is a national priority.