For a world class nation, we need to breed world-class talent rather than give mundane third-class job security

Dean of IIPM

Nothing could be more ironical than the fact that at a time when India is experiencing an unprecedented growth rate coupled with creation of millions of white collar jobs, at a time when India is poised to be the back office of the world, the government and its institutions are facing an acute shortage of qualified manpower to take the country ahead. Consider this: in the recent past, India’s foreign secretary deposed in front of a parliamentary committee that for every Indian diplomat, Brazil has four and China has seven diplomats. Incidentally, all three – that is, Brazil, India & China – are part of the famous BRIC economies of Goldman Sachs. So while China is going full throttle to realise its ambition of overtaking the US economy in the next few decades and has readied its arsenal of top notch technocrats to help tilt crucial global business deals in its favour, India has oft en lost in the game for the want of farsighted and dedicated new age professionals.

In the same league, the Indian Army is facing an acute shortage of commissioned officers to the tune of 12,000. This, at a time when the concept of warfare is going through a structural shift and becoming more of a mind and machine game. As such, the need for dynamic leaders in the form of young commissioned officers becomes all the more important. Leaders, who are not just committed, but also astute enough to lead the million plus army to victory. But this shortage in the army is not because of lack of commitment on the part of Indian youth towards the armed forces, but on account of sheer lack of recognition and remuneration. A junior executive in the private sector probably starts at a higher package than the pittance that a Lieutenant earns. And middle level soft ware professionals earn more than Colonels do. No wonder that the youth prefer the private sector today. Yet, the plight is not just restricted to army only. The same is the situation of the Indian Air Force, which, in the recent past, has witnessed tremendous attrition of pilots who preferred hopping to the private sector aviation players for want of six digit salaries. Similarly, organisations like DRDO (Defence Research & Development Organisation) today have a greater number of non-technical and non-scientific manpower than otherwise... So much so that crucial organisations like Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Management (Kolkata), National School of Drama and even Council of Scientific and Industrial Research are all headless today. And the reason? Of course, abysmal salaries (having no correlation with efficiency and productivity of an individual), coupled with relentless interference from the concerned ministries, politicking and the fear of being haunted and persecuted by the CAG and CBI.

Though a lot of noise is being made for the severe talent crunch that India is going to face in the foreseeable future, there seems to be a conspiracy of silence with regards to the same crisis at the top. This is even more alarming since all the aforesaid institutions are of strategic importance to India. Until and unless our government works on a war-footing to get rid of its age old bureaucratic baggage and creates a challenging environment that is sans any form of politics, things would only worsen. If we actually dream of building a world-class nation, we must create world-class institutions; institutions that are bred upon world-class talent in a world-class environment and not upon some mundane, third-class job security!

Editor - Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist)