World has already started registering the fact that in spite of its inherent contradictions, India cannot be ignored. This nation needs to be involved not just for the change in south or Southeast Asia but the world as a whole. Some of the ecological and economical challenges ahead of the world in general and India in particular can only be dealt through the emerging youth force. Youth today need to bring about the much needed change in their attitude by focusing on capacity development and creating opportunities to contribute positively towards building a new India.

While India can be proud of its industrial and economic development - which is sadly limited to urban India only - we certainly cannot be proud of our rural development, particularly in the context of generating livelihood options, providing purposeful education, developing an ecological habitat and ensuring primary health. These challenges can be taken head on only if the youth participate and aspire to contribute towards the larger national goal.

The challenge is to manage the growth potential in a manner which makes it inclusive, pragmatic and sustainable. What we have to do is change mindsets so that civil society, policy makers, bureaucrats and corporate leaders can think of providing a favourable environment to the youth and encourage them to become tomorrow’s leaders.

We need to analyse some of the critical issues in the context of empowerment of youth, such as high levels of unemployment, delinquent behaviour, disillusionment with the State and the persistence of vulnerabilities towards marginalisation. These can be attributed to the inadequacy of the education system, breakdown of law and order due to civil strife, apathy of the State, lack of supporting infrastructure and poverty, all of which need to be addressed immediately.

We need to identify the unemployment problem in India at a macro level and analyse the existing demand-supply gap in the Indian labour market which is a result of the low levels of skill and education. The impact of globalisation on labour mobility in India and its implications also need to be addressed so that merging both global and Indian job markets potential can be mainstreamed in order to create universal opportunities.

The main problem today is the severe shortage of employable technical, entrepreneurial and soft skills. A number of measures which can be put in place to meet the growing demand for new skills include revamping the existing educational and vocational training system, reforming the legal framework, public-private partnerships in the education and vocational training sector, diversifying rural livelihood options and developing innovative financial instruments to finance skill acquisition and start ups.

In the context of the demographic bonus and the excess demand for skilled labour across the globe, India has the potential of becoming the ‘skills shop of the world’.

We need to provide some very practical solutions to mitigate the bias against skill acquisition in India. Some possible solutions include improvement in the under-utilised infrastructure facilities for imparting technical training, accreditation of skills by credible certifying agencies, introduction of flexible and short duration skill imparting programmes, particularly for women. In view of the existing diversity in India, capacity development initiatives will have to be tailor-made for different regions and stakeholders.

While we recognise that focus has to be on capacity development of the youth, we cannot ignore the fact that it should have equal focus on women empowerment and their inclusiveness as a key stakeholder.