The Workforce Crisis

India's skilling gap risks turning its demographic dividend into a crisis, demanding urgent reform and visionary leadership

- SUBROTO BAGCHI

On 4 April 2016, exactly four days into my free-to-go plan, the phone rang. The caller at the other end said the Honourable Chief Minister of Odisha wanted to speak to me. It was dramatic. Naveen Patnaik came on the line. 'Mr Bagchi,' he said, 'we will be very grateful if you come and help us with skill development for our youth. This is something extremely important for us. I hope you will consider my request and say yes.

'The state needs you. We want you to consider joining us as chairman of Odisha Skill Development Authority. We will give you complete freedom and whatever resources you may need. You can bring in whoever you choose from outside for the assignment.' I was caught completely off guard for a few moments. Then, very politely, I told him how humbled, how deeply honoured I was to receive his call and asked for some time to think it over.

Susmita knew something was happening, and I told her about the conversation as soon as it ended. Now it was her turn to be startled. Both of us were very confused. I had left Odisha four decades ago. What did the running of a government programme and I have in common? What did I know about skill development for youth, mostly school dropouts? It was one thing for the chief minister to tell me something flattering in that moment of induced importance and quite another to get accepted by the system without which one just cannot work in the government.