Unemployment may hit India hard: Pranab Mukherjee

New Delhi: India, by the year 2022, would be facing a disadvantage called “demographic dividend,” said former President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday.

Addressing the graduates at the TISS graduation day ceremony, he said, “More than 50 per cent of India’s population will be below 25 years of age in 2022. If we, as a nation, fail to provide them with jobs or are unable to aid them in developing skills the jobs require, a large chunk of our population will remain unemployed. This, in turn, is bad for our next generation.” The former President congratulated young minds for their exemplary performances and wished them all success for their future.

Sharing his own experience in the development of higher educational system, he said, “Most of the institutions in India were not recognised under any international rating agency. However, after much hard work and meetings with vice-chancellors and directors of different institutions, we were able to come up with some changes, of which the result is that some of the institutions such as IITs, NITs, etc. are been recognised as worldwide institutes.” Mr Mukherjee said, “In my close observations, which I have repeatedly shared with vice-chancellors, I’ve noticed that there is a lack of close nexus between industry and universities, which if implemented, could result in harnessing particular skills within students. This, in the future, will be able to fulfil the markets’ aspirations.”

Highlighting the lack of fundamental research within the education system, he said that no Indian scholar working in an Indian institution has been recommended for a Nobel award after 1933. The last such scholar was Sir C.V. Raman, he said.

He later added, “It’s not that we don’t have brilliant minds within our society. In truth, we have people such as Har Gobind Khorana, Amartya Sen, Subramaniam Chandrashekhar, etc. who have been acknowledged for their original body of work. But the only thing which pains me is that they all received the noble prize for their work in foreign universities.”

While accentuating the need for innovation within the educational system, he said that politicians, policymakers, and academics throughout the country need to create an ambience, which would attract students towards fundamental research.