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Time of India
22-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Can India Lead the Global Workforce of the Future? Insights from the ETHRWorld Annual Conclave 2025ETHRWorld
Demographic dividend, realised or wasted? From talent supply to skills innovation hub Advt Skilling in a multi-generational workforce Skilling at the speed of change Building for agility and innovation The human core of the skills race The path ahead Advt By Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals. Subscribe to Newsletter to get latest insights & analysis in your inbox. All about ETHRWorld industry right on your smartphone! Download the ETHRWorld App and get the Realtime updates and Save your favourite articles. As the global war for critical skills intensifies, the question facing policymakers, companies, and educators is no longer whether they need to transform or not, the question is — how fast? That urgency set the tone for the opening panel at the ETHRWorld's Future Skills Conference 2025, titled 'The Global Skills Race : Who Will Lead the Workforce of the Future?' Held in Mumbai, the panel brought together leading voices from industry and academia to examine what it will take for India to move from a talent-rich nation to a true skills they tackled a fundamental question: Can India truly lead the global workforce of the future?India's young population, expected to reach 900 million working-age individuals by 2030, has long been viewed as its greatest strength. But as Hemalakshmi Raju, CLO, Leader-Diversity & Inclusion, Reliance Industries (Hydrocarbon Business) cautioned, 'It's not just potential, we need to convert potential into possibility. Our success with platforms like UPI shows that we can do it at scale.' She pointed to India's modest ranking in Coursera's Global Skills Report (89th out of 109 countries, and 46th in AI maturity) as evidence that intention must be matched by Noorani, Group Head - Organization & Talent Development, RPG Group, expressed cautious optimism. 'We've shown we can scale national AI solutions like DigiYatra and DigiLocker. The only thing standing in our way is our own ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn.' He also emphasised the need for stipends and support systems to help young earners stay engaged in formal skilling Prasad Dixit, Head-Learning and Talent, Lupin, India's moment is now. 'We are no longer just a talent supplier. The world sees us as a capability and innovation hub,' he said. However, he cautioned that alignment between policy, industry, and education remains academia, Dr Shibani Belwalkar, Professor of HRM and Director of Executive Education at SDA Bocconi Asia Center, Mumbai, offered a critical lens. 'We are skilling fast but are we creating enough meaningful opportunities for those skills to thrive?' She also flagged a major mindset shift in the incoming Gen Z and Gen Alpha workforce. 'They're not looking for traditional careers. They're building portfolios of experiences, what we call flexible variety and flexible stability,' she said, urging employers to redesign roles and assessment metrics an age where skills become obsolete quickly, adaptability has become a non-negotiable leadership trait. 'Skills don't disappear—they mutate,' said Allwyn Dsilva, VP & Global Head-L&D, Future of Work & Business HR, Tata Communications. He described how the company uses AI across its talent lifecycle, from hiring to L&D to internal mobility. Employees can view role options, assess skill gaps, and access personalised learning journeys — all within a unified, AI-powered mobility and role fungibility were also key themes in the discussion. Noorani shared RPG's multi-year plan to map skills across 80% of their roles, with future plans to build individual learning maps and mobility corridors between sectors. 'We're building pathways so someone in EPC can add value in tech, or someone in pharma can collaborate with IT teams,' he Lupin, Dixit stated that innovation must co-exist with regulatory rigour. 'We're building functional academies that serve both purposes,' he said. 'People in R&D get exposed to AI, and data scientists learn about compliance.' The goal: a cross-trained, innovation-ready asked what skill no leader can ignore in 2025, the panel's responses were telling: learning agility, emotional intelligence, authenticity, and compassion. 'AI might isolate us,' said Noorani. 'But human connection will keep us grounded.'Outdated practices were also called out: static annual training plans, man-days as a metric, and chasing participation over outcomes. 'Let's stop pushing people to learn,' Taj noted in closing. 'Let's make them want to.'As Dr Belwalkar aptly put it, 'This isn't a race to lead, it's a race to move forward.' With robust partnerships between industry, academia, and government, and a generational opportunity in hand, India might just have what it takes to lead the global workforce of the future.
Indian Express
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
June 20, 1985, Forty Years Ago: $4 bn aid for India
The Aid-India consortium pledged total assistance of four billion dollars to India during the fiscal year 1985-86, which represents an increase of over five per cent in real terms. India will get 3.9 billion dollars in terms of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) as against 3.7 billion dollars last year. This is an increase of 200 million dollars or 5.5 per cent in real terms. In pledging four billion dollars, the World-Bank led consortium has maintained its assistance to India at approximately last year's level. Pak criticises India India expressed 'regret' at the statement of Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zain Noorani, about the human rights of Indian Muslims. An official spokesperson said, 'we regret that the minister should have spoken in such terms about India's internal affairs.' Noorani had made the statement while referring to the anti-reservation agitation in Gujarat. He alleged that the state government has instigated a communal riot to divert attention from the agitation. Cong chief killed The city Congress (I) president, Neta Hakimuddin, was shot dead by unidentified assailants on the Prahlad Nagar road in Meerut. The DIG, police, Nathu Lal told PTI that the Congress (I) leader, who was riding on a rickshaw, was shot from point-blank range by some persons. The bullets hit him on the temple and he died on the spot, he said. The assailants managed to escape.
