We first need to assess if there is an opportunity and if there is a real need. If you look at both perspectives, the answer is yes; but the question is who has this need? Both the government and the industry need people to be skilled. The Government ought to leverage India’s demographic dividend but currently there are several segments which are not a part of the India’s growth trajectory such as the tribal groups, majority of rural population and BPL(Below Poverty Line) youth in both rural and urban areas. I am sure this serves the interest of the industry as well since industry has a pressing need of finding people with adequate skills to fulfill their growth plans. Therefore, there is a huge opportunity for multiple players to provide solutions.
The challenge this industry faces is that this exercise has never been done before to the scale and size that India needs today. We are targeting 500 million people to be skilled by 2022. There are two issues: firstly, how do we mobilize this vast disparate segment and secondly, how do we monetize this opportunity by cracking an unique revenue model. We also need to bear in mind that while the government has taken a very smart decision to encourage the PPP model, India is a land of entrepreneurs and many small players are likely to enter this space. But I believe that the task needs the expertise and staying power of large corporates which have the experience and the capability to execute at this scale and sustain themselves.