Why India Should Not Chase the ‘Make in India’ Dream

 

In the last few months that the NDA Govt. has come into power, there has been a huge thrust on "Make in India" campaign, which plans to make India a global manufacturing hub. There are couple of other reasons also behind this campaign:

1.       India has to import lot of things from foreign countries and if these things can be made in India, we can stop this outflow

2.       India has a huge demographic bulge and the Indian economy is not able to absorb so many people in the existing framework. It is believed that if India is able to build a large manufacturing base, employment can be generated for lot of people
 

While this is a noble thought, I personally believe that India would be better off by not taking this path. Some of the reasons why I feel this are as under:

1.       Too Late to Replicate China Model: We are trying to emulate China and trying to fight a battle in their own backyard and in a game which they are masters of. We have to appreciate that China started building manufacturing hubs for the world some 30 years ago. India will not be able to match what China has achieved in 30 years in just 3-5 years. Further, China’s growth is slowing down along with the slowing of major world economies. This will result in excess / spare capacity within China. So while we’ll not be able to compete with China on cost, China will have all the incentives to beat us down in the price war.
 

2.       People Readiness: Indian Society is not ready for a manufacturing driven economy. It is not aspirational to work in a factory. Skilled manpower is not available easily. The cost of acquiring skilled manpower and re-skilling them will be prohibitively high. Even to train so many people, India currently does not have a pool of trainers. The performance of our various skilling initiatives is a testimony to this argument.

 

Even in terms of labour productivity, India is far behind China and many other countries like South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia etc. The following World Bank data on labour productivity measured in terms of GDP per capita (gross domestic product divided by midyear population) highlights the gap.

 

 

Also if we compare the Female Labour force participation rate, female (% of female population ages 15+) as per World Bank, India’s LFPR at 27% (2013 estimate) is way below China’s 64% and a world average of 50%. This clearly indicates that India needs a socio-cultural revolution alongside the “Make in India” campaign, before it can work.

 

3.       Lack of Indigenous Technology: Technology is disrupting all the business models – As per a famous quote of Warren Bennis, The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment. What is likely to happen is that India will need to import foreign technology to create a manufacturing hub in the country. It has been witnessed that no country will share the latest technology with India. So what we’ll get is an old technology at exorbitant price and with innovations like 3D printing etc., it is quite possible that those technologies may not be able to serve us well and provide adequate value addition.

 

4.       Asset Heavy Model: Companies and Economies are very similar. Asset heavy model has dented the balance sheets of various infrastructure companies and have brought them under huge financial duress. I personally don’t see any reason why this will not happen to a country like India, if it adopts the same strategy.

 

 

5.       Lack of Enabling Infrastructure: India is not ready as far as the basic infrastructure is ready like roads, rails, ports etc. and the investment required to bring this up to an international level will not only be huge, but will also take many years, if not decades. I am not sure if foreign investors would be willing to wait for 8-10 years before their investments start giving them returns.

 

6.       Lack of Excitement from Indian Corporate: It is observed that in our “Make in India” campaign, foreign companies are more bullish on India than Indian companies themselves. One of the reasons for this euphoria is the saturation in their respective markets and other market related dynamics like cut in govt. spending, etc. We should not make this a one way affair, where we open up our markets for these companies without getting an opportunity to tap into their markets.

 

 

7.       Lack of Ease of Doing Business: While the govt. is making all attempts to streamline our legal processes. India still remains a tough country in terms of “Ease of Doing Business” and this is not going to change very quickly. Therefore, there is a huge possibility that these companies which are so excited at the Indian macro-economic potential right now, after entering the market get frustrated and decide to quit. Once this FDI money starts to leave the shore and the sentiment gets reversed, India will land itself in a big financial mess.

 

8.       High Input Costs: It is a well known fact that India has a high cost of land and capital. The land acquisition legislation is still in doldrums and the cost of capital will take decades to come down and at par with that available in developed economies.

 

 

9.       Governance Framework: India is a democracy. The regulations and overall governance framework is quite complicated in the sense that some things are under the purview of Central Govt. and others in State Govt. Different States have different ideologies and political motives. This makes things even more difficult for a foreign company to negotiate.

 

10.   Climate and Environment Issues: Last but not the least, in the rush for making India a manufacturing hub we are most likely to overlook the climate and environment issues, which will hurt us badly in the long run.

It would be better to continue focussing on the Service industry, which is asset light and offers high return on investment. The only tweaking that would be required to be made in the model is that people will have to be trained for the world and not just India. Another thing on which we need to focus is creating a strong R&D and innovation ecosystem in the country.

While the article builds a strong case for not going overboard on the “Make in India” campaign, it is understood that manufacturing sector cannot be completely ignored. The only suggestion here is to grow organically and indigenously rather than burdening India with huge foreign debt for acquiring outdated technologies.  

India is at an inflexion point in our history. The reason for starting this discourse is to generate views and suggestions for ensuring that we don’t land our country into a demographic and or financial disaster.

The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author. Comments on this article are most welcome.

E-Learning

Introduction

E-learning can be defined as the process of teaching and/or learning through the use of electronic content, whether packaged or custom built, developed using authoring tools like Adobe Captivate. etc., and delivered through either pre-installed or hosted learning platforms. E-learning can be or self-paced or instructor led. When it is used in combination with face to face teaching it is known as blended learning.

Global E-Learning Market

Per industry estimates, the worldwide self-paced e-learning market is currently estimated at USD 45 billion and is expected to touch USD 70 billion by 2020. While the US dominates this market, Asia has emerged as the fastest growing region. In terms of individual countries, Russia has registered the highest growth rate and is therefore considered a mature market now.

Some of the major companies in the e-learning space, world over, include Pearson, Apollo Group, McGraw Hill, Cengage Learning, and Blackboard. Key spenders on e-learning include private schools, colleges, and universities, large corporations, and the government.

Emerging Trends

Across the globe, as governmental spending on higher education decreases, universities are consequently forced to cut down on scholarships in turn making higher education more expensive for students. Universities are thus looking at online courses as an alternative revenue stream, as they navigate their way in uncertain times. In January this year, Georgia Institute of Technology, in partnership with AT&T and Udacity, started a low cost online Master’s degree in computer science.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have also paved the way for democratization of knowledge across the world. Some of the key players in the field include edX, Udacity, Coursera, Knewton, Udemy, Khan Academy, 2U, MITx, iTunesU, and Code Academy.

Other emerging trends include business models based on the renting of e-books, e-library platforms/environments which can host e-books, flipped classrooms, big data analytics, data or knowledge mining, gamification of Learning Management Systems (LMS), canned lectures, cloud computing (Infrastructure, Software, and Platform as a Service), Content as a Service, School as a Service, wearable devices, and virtual and remote labs.

 

The E-learning Market in India

In India, e-learning is a part of the Ancillary segment within the Education sector, and is estimated to be worth around USD 15 billion, compared to the total USD 80 billion size of the Indian Education sector.

The e-learning market is at a nascent stage and with all its constituents (digital learning, LMS, CMS, ICT, online learning etc.) across different segments, is estimated at around USD 1 billion growing at a CAGR of 20%. The segment is largely unregulated and is characterized by asset-light business models, making it a lucrative segment for Private Equity/Venture Capital firms.

E-Learning can fix many of the problems that India’s Education sector faces. For instance, in the schooling segment, we are still short of over 100 thousand schools and 4 million teachers. In higher education, our Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is a mere 20% with a current shortfall of 0.4 million faculty members. The vocational education segment also faces challenges: while the government has ambitiously targeted skilling 500 million people by 2022, there are hardly any “Train the Trainer” facilities. The quantum of investment required to bridge these gaps is estimated at USD 450 billion. India clearly does not have such funds with which to invest in education. However, the acuteness of the problem necessitates that technological solutions be considered before India’s demographic dividend turns into a demographic disaster.

Key Players

The nature of the e-learning industry is such that the entry barriers are very low and therefore, a large number of companies are competing in this space with fragmented market shares. This trend is observed globally and is not limited solely to India. Educomp, Everonn, TutorVista, HughesNet, NIIT Imperia, Excelsoft Technologies, G-Cube, Mexus Education, NIIT, Next Education, Pearson, Upside Learning, 24X7 Learning, Tata Interactive, Tridat, Liqvid, Meritnation, iProf, Attano, S. Chand and Extramarks are some of the players trying to stake a permanent claim in this space.

Key Growth Drivers

The Indian e-learning market is poised to take off in a big way, as indicated by such factors as the huge base of over 900 million mobile phone connections, over 130 million smartphones, in excess of 250 million Internet users with more than 75% being active users of social media, the growing adoption of 3G and 4G technologies, the increasing availability of low-cost mobile devices, and a mostly-young Internet-using population, with 75% under 35 years of age.

One of the key enablers of an e-learning product can be its tangible correlation with organizational goals and its flexibility and compatibility in terms of seamlessly integrating with existing legacy systems like ERP, CRM, etc. In this space, instructor-led MOOCs, m-learning, e-assessment and gamified LMS can be the next big, disruptive business models and, in effect,  game-changers.

Key Challenges

One of the biggest challenges for e-learning in India is that teachers and other faculty are not ready to adopt it at a mass level and there is substantial resistance to such a change across schools, where products like SmartClass are kept under lock and key and sporadically used. Again, many products are mainly imitations, with little differentiation between their core offerings. As a result, players in the market are competing on price alone in order to gain a greater market share, wiping out any scope for profit margins.

Another challenge of e-learning is that, in most cases, it does not account for the prior learning of the learners. Also, at the level of professional courses- an area which MOOCs are targeting in a big way- the industry has still not fully recognized and given due weightage to these courses.

Future Outlook

The e-learning market in India is likely to be fuelled by the increasing penetration of Internet-enabled smartphones, the availability of low-cost tablets, and the shortage of educational infrastructure in terms of quality teachers, labs, libraries, and other physical and support infrastructure. However, the psychographics and availability of such support infrastructure as electricity, computers, broadband, etc. have thus far dampened the growth of e-learning in India. Even today the reach of e-learning products is limited largely to the metros, mini metros, and Tier I and Tier II cities.

On the higher education front, private universities, which have set up physical infrastructure on a large scale, need to watch out for the trend currently developing in the US, viz. the burgeoning proportion of enrolment in online higher education programs vis-à-vis total enrolment in programs of higher education.

Key Imperatives

Among the key imperatives necessary for this sector is the creation of an industry body which provides for a repository of open and reusable learning objects. Also needed is the creation of knowledge through social networks, virtual worlds like Second Life, etc. Further, there is need for an online accreditation agency which can monitor and evaluate the quality of available e-learning offerings. Finally, the e-learning proposition needs to be made more personal and human.

To sum, India needs to take a leadership role in this space, given its strong IT infrastructure as well as the quantum of manpower involved in the IT and ITeS sectors. Indian students need to stay ahead and not lag behind in terms of adopting technology, in comparison with their transcontinental counterparts.

A free e-book on Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) - 2005

To download the full version of the free e-book on Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) - Click on the below link: http://bit.ly/YoFR3K

 

Limited Liability Partnership

This book was written in 2005 and aims to cogitate the raison d'être, which beget the evolution of the limited liability partnership (LLP) form of business structure. It discusses the LLP Statutes in United States of America, Channel Island of Jersey, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Australia. It further draws a comparison of the limited liability partnership laws prevalent in these places and identifies the best practices, which with apposite adaptations can be made a part of a similar legislation in India.

Methodology

This book adopts a desk research method, which involves Internet research, literature review and analysis, and correspondence with the relevant authorities in the places studied.

Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge the valuable contributions made by a number of people who helped me in the development and refinement of this text. First I would like to thank Prof. Prem Sikka, Professor of Accounting, Department of Accounting, Finance and Management, University of Essex, UK for his guidance on the subject.

Special thanks go to Ms. Toh Wee San, Senior Assistant Registrar ACRA, Singapore who gave my queries a patient listening and guided me in understanding the most technical issues of the subject.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

The inclination to collaborate to accomplish certain commercial objectives has a long history. The commercial magnetism of such collaborations and a need to govern their business ultimately led to the codification of corporate and partnership laws.

Corporations and Partnerships have been a primary form of business structure for a long time now. For more than a century, partnership law has offered an all-embracing and lucid alternative to corporate law. Although, the two bodies of law have much in common, historically they differed sharply on the role of the contract and private ordering in structuring the firm.

Partnership law encourages private ordering through bargaining by providing a set of statutory default norms that, with only a few exceptions, yield to agreements negotiated by partners. In contrast, corporate law historically has provided a mandatory framework for firm structure highly resistant to shareholders’ attempts to define their relationships through bargaining[1]. Proponents of private ordering within firms prefer the freedoms of partnership law to the mandates of corporate law, and over time they have enjoyed success in extending the bargaining model from partnership law to corporate law.

However, the inherent limitations of both these forms of businesses have made them unsuitable for certain businesses and ultimately hybrid forms of business structures such as limited partnerships, limited liability partnership, limited liability limited partnerships etc. evolved.

GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF PARTNERSHIP LAWS

Partnership laws around the world have evolved over a period of time in consonance with the changing business requirements. Broadly, the partnership laws can be classified in three generations viz. General Partnership Laws (First Generation), Limited Partnership Laws (Second Generation) and Limited Liability Partnership Laws (Third Generation).

First Generation

The UK Partnership Act, 1890 is an archetypal example of first generation of partnership laws. A general partnership firm is not a separate legal entity. A partner is considered as the agent of the firm and of other partners for the purpose of the business of the firm. Further, every partner is liable, jointly and severally with all the other partners, for all acts of the firm done while he is a partner. Where, by the wrongful act or omission of a partner acting in the ordinary course of the business of a firm, or with the authority of his partners, loss or injury is caused to any third party, or any penalty is incurred, the firm is liable therefore to the same extent as the partner.

General partnership is regarded by the public as the type of business structure providing the optimal protection to members of the public, because partners are not protected by limited liability and the claimants can always go after the personal assets of each partner to meet his or her claim.[2]

The characteristic of "unlimited liability" ensures that the partners maintain a direct interest in the affairs of the partnership and conduct of its partners, especially in small practices where the partners are likely to work in the same location. For large practices, they may have offices in several places, and thus partners may not be able to keep track of all aspects and transactions of the partnership. Nonetheless, under a general partnership, partners still have to share the liabilities for the negligence of those partners whom they may barely know or meet.[3]

The advantage of this structure is that its business affairs are entirely private. A partnership agreement is also a private confidential document providing the flexibility in which the partners can determine how the internal structure and relationship between partners and between partners and the partnership are governed.[4]

Second Generation

The UK Limited Partnership Act, 1907 is an archetypal example of second generation of partnership laws. A limited partnership is different from a general partnership to the extent that it classifies the partners into two classes: a general partner and a limited partner. Limited partnerships must have at least one general and one limited partner. The essence of a limited partnership is that it bestows on the partnership the benefit of limited liability to a certain extent. In a limited partnership, the liability of the limited partner is limited to the amount of his contribution. He is like an investor and usually does not take part in the management or day-to-day running of the firm.

However, if a limited partner takes part in the management, he can be held liable for all debts and obligations of the firm incurred while he so takes part in the management, as though he were a general partner. As against this, the general partner is responsible for the management of the firm and has unlimited liability. Further, limited partnerships do not specifically deal with the issue of joint and several liabilities. Partners can still be held liable for the wrongful acts or omissions of their fellow partners. For tax purposes, a limited partnership is not considered as a taxable entity and its income and capital transactions flow through to the partners. Limited Partnerships are increasingly being used for private equity and fund investment businesses.

Third Generation

The UK Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2000 is an archetypal example of third generation of partnership laws. A limited liability partnership (LLP) is an alternative corporate business vehicle that not only provides the benefits of limited liability but also allows its partners the flexibility of organizing their internal structure as a general partnership. The limited liability partnership is a separate legal entity and, while the LLP itself will be liable for the full extent of its assets, the liability of the partners will be limited. In LLP, each partner is the agent of the LLP but not of other partners.

The limited liability partnership structure has gained importance in the last one decade and is now available in United States of America, Channel Island of Jersey, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Australia.

The push for the creation of limited liability partnership grew from several factors, such as general increase in the incidence of litigation for professional’s negligence and the size of claims; the risk to a partner's personal assets, when the claim exceeds the sum of the assets and insurance cover of the partnership; the growth in the size of partnerships; increase in specialization among partners and the coming together of different professions within a partnership.

There are also concerns about the shifting of the business structure of a firm from a general partnership to an LLP, albeit there is no empirical data supporting them. One of the concerns is about the impact upon the culture of a law firm. For instance, the practice of law in high-risk areas often yields high rewards commensurate with the increased risk of liability. Partners in a general partnership usually share both the risk and risk-related gains with their fellow partners. If a shift to an LLP causes a member/partner to shoulder a higher risk of liability than others, he or she may demand a larger share of the rewards. Similarly, the risk of some members/partners may increase where the legislation provides that members/partners of LLPs have to be liable for the acts of those under their direct supervision; in particular, if some members/partners have to supervise less experienced lawyers or staff.[5]

 

Some consider that shifting from the general partnership status to the LLP status may result in less incentive for members/partners to monitor and control the quality of work by other members/partners of the firm, as they are no longer liable for the acts of their fellow members/partners. The breakdown of internal procedures at Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm operating as an LLP, in connection with the collapse of the Enron Corporation, is often quoted as an example of such disincentive.[6]

However, the level of protection that an LLP affords partners of a LLP is an important factor in why LLP is fast becoming the preferred structure for major professional services firms.

 

Failing Organizations - The Dump Truck Syndrome

A link to this document - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3cgnyzcmpn3bjqr/9X4YPAJRX2 

Link to the document

The Future of Education

The Future of Education

Introduction

As India moves ahead on the path of globalization, it needs to overhaul its education system to meet the future demands. While the world population is ageing, India’s working population (25-59 years) is slated to continuously increase. This phenomenon will make India a supplier of workforce to the entire world. In the wake of this reality, the Indian education system should therefore be able to produce a workforce which is globally competitive and thus reap its demographic dividend. There is, therefore, an acknowledged need for disruptive and innovative models of education to address the challenges of educating the “digital natives”.

How will this new model of education be different? It will be flexible, creative, challenging, and complex. It will be focused on addressing the needs of a rapidly changing world filled with fantastic new problems as well as exciting new possibilities. In the following paragraphs, we will attempt to peep into the future and see how technology will be leveraged to address some of our dire needs of creating knowledge that is meaningful and fun filled. We will also attempt to visualize the future of school education, school leaders & teachers and how the job market will evolve with several careers getting extinct and many more emerging.

Peeping into the Future

It is certain that the future will be shaped by emerging and ever evolving technologies. An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common sense “intuitive linear” view. We are living in exponential times – consider this- a week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18^th century. It is estimated that 4 extrabytes (4 x 10^19) of unique information will be generated this year, which is more than the information generated in the last 5,000 years. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21^st century – it will be more like 20,000 years of progress.

One of the reasons which can be attributed for this exploding growth of knowledge is the concept of “Sapiential circles”. The concept was coined by Prof. Warren Bennis, a distinguished professor from Southern California’s Marshall School of Business — he was referring to how the knowledge of a group tended to increase exponentially as new members were added to the group.

What we are witnessing in the world of today is a dramatic increase in our own ‘human sapiential circles’ as a result of global connectivity. Quite simply, we have connected the minds of people around the world who share an interest in a topic or issue — they become a ‘sapiential circle’. And the result is dramatic — for example, the amount of medical knowledge doubles every eight years; it is said that half of what an engineering student learns in their first year is obsolete or revised by the time they graduate.

Changes of this magnitude require a complete rethinking of education systems, both in terms of the curriculum, and in the development of pedagogies that ensure that every student acquires high level of skills needed to thrive in the dynamic world of the 21^st century. In addition to the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, every learner must also master the "three C's:" Communication, Collaboration, and Creative Problem Solving.

Beyond these are the equally important skills of knowing how to use numbers and data in real-world tasks, the ability to locate and process information relevant to the task at hand, technological fluency, and, most of all, the skills and attitudes needed to be a lifelong learner. Teachers need to not only teach children what to learn, but they need to teach young people how they can continue to learn in the future.

Education of the future will be extensively driven by technology and will not be limited in time or to one place. Learning can happen anytime, anywhere, and can meet needs based on interest. Students will be motivated by a structure that allows them to explore and learn in innovated and interest-driven environments.

Schools in the 21^st century will be laced with a project-based curriculum for life aimed at engaging students in addressing real-world problems, issues important to humanity, and questions that matter. 

This will be a dramatic departure from the factory-model education of the past.  It is abandonment, finally, of textbook-driven, teacher-centered, paper and pencil schooling.  It means a new way of understanding the concept of “knowledge”, a new definition of the “educated person”. 

Schools will go from ‘buildings’ to 'nerve centers', with walls that are porous and transparent, connecting teachers, students and the community to the wealth of knowledge that exists in the world.”

A school of tomorrow will thus focus on ensuring that students and teachers understand that they must be prepared to engender a mindset that involves adaptability, flexibility; a mindset that embraces and does not fear constant change; a mindset in which they will view a future of constant change with wonder and awe, rather than concern.

The Future of Learners

Technology will serve as a means to the resources that students will be able to utilize in order to broaden their learning. Several new technologies are slated to emerge that will make learning fun and more personalized.

Things like emotion sensors will detect student boredom. Thus, student learning will be continuously monitored and the learning systems will be capable of adapting themselves to maintain student attention and interest.

Electronic translators will ensure complete irrelevance of language. Thus, language will no longer be the barrier to learning.

Things like 3D holography will ensure that a teacher can be present across the world and her lessons can be viewed by the student at his own pace and for any number of times, anytime - anywhere.

Technologies like 3D printing which came into scene in 2003 will get more advanced. The costs of 3D printers will also come down substantially. This will bring 3D printers from industrial use to home use and each house will have a 3D printer. Children will be able to print their models and work of art at home. This will fuel development of innovative products.

Students will be able to work at their own speed to attain competencies of choice. Students will be matched to projects that align with their own learning levels and abilities. Each student plan could be paced differently based on what a student needs. Learning will be more personalized, inclusive and experimental.

Overall, students will take the responsibility of their own learning and teachers will just be a facilitator – encouraging self-directed learning; learning by doing; learning from experience; students will design and complete their own growth plans. Continuous and lifelong learning will become the way of life.

This will result in a need for developing competency-based curriculum in which students demonstrate their competencies and can move forward if the skill is proven as mastered, rather than repeating those skills.

Currently, educators hope that the knowledge, behaviours, and skill learned in the classroom will be effectively transferred to relevant situations in the real world. However, the current education system does not prepare a child in a way that classroom learning can be effectively applied in the real world. It is foreseeable that simulation and immersive learning technologies will come to the fore and enhance knowledge, verify expertise and improve learning outcomes.

Through these technologies, a student will not only be able to do focused and repetitive practice to gain expertise but also get assessed in a real time mode on his technical competencies. Such learning systems will also have the capabilities to support multi learner environment and assess not only individual performance but also group cohesion and team dynamics.

Broadcasting networks and technologies, which provide access to educational content even in the remote areas will gain momentum. Online collaboration platforms will enable teachers, students and families to interact and build educational content. Online learning platforms will be developed which can be customized and tailored to the needs of the students, even outside the mainstream education system.

The Future of School Teachers & Leaders

In future, knowledge will become freely available. Lesson plans, videos, books, text, articles, blogs will all be digitized and will be available freely. Teachers will become facilitators of knowledge and no longer the “only expert” because of the rapid and constant changes and additions to information that can be found. Schools will work in partnership with the community to provide services for students and provide an educational team that will meet all needs. Within this team there will be experts in areas that will help the team look at the “whole child” and help that child create a plan based on skill strengths, interests, and community needs.

The teacher will guide students through learning – no longer the one who possesses all the knowledge will lecture and “give” all the knowledge to the students. It will be impossible for teachers to have all the knowledge with technology that is capable of finding much more than what can be learned.

Thus, teachers will play the role of a facilitator. The role of the teacher will be to help the students with resources; help students learn where to locate information and help students evaluate sites and resources for validity.

This would require continued professional development of teachers for which teachers will have to be empowered and made partners in change. They will have to keep themselves abreast of the latest technologies as the world ahead will be a more connected world with growing numbers of virtual schools.

However, continuing to train teachers to perform in a world of monolithic, teacher led content delivery, where the key skills are in holding students’ attention to subjects that are being taught to the dominant type of learner in each subject, trains teachers for the past.

Future teachers will need the skills to work one on one with different type of learners as they study in a student centric way. The tools that teachers build and distribute in the user networks of the future will play a key role in making learning student-centric. The next generation of teachers needs to learn how to build these tools for different types of learners.

The Future Job Market

Today, everyone knows that education is taking on more and more importance around the world. In the last decade, international competition in higher education and the job market has grown dramatically. As the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman famously pointed out, the world economy has indeed "flattened." Companies now digitize, automate, and outsource work to the most competitive individuals, companies, and countries.

If our challenge could be limited to preparing people for the kinds of jobs available today, we would still have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, the challenge is even greater. Many of the jobs that will be available at the turn of the century have yet to be invented. Research shows that the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004. It is believed that majority of the jobs our current kindergartners will be filling in the year 2050 haven’t been invented yet.

It is predicted that all jobs, which do not require creativity will get automated in near future. So the kind of jobs that would be on offer will be more creativity based in nature. Thus, critical thinking and problem solving skills will be in high demand.

Workers of the future will change jobs many more times during their lives as compared to workers of present — and parallel careers will become the norm as people will extract themselves from professions that are becoming extinct. Educators need to know what is happening; how careers go extinct; how people survive extinction; and how they use extinction to thrive. Knowing this will once again help them in preparing young people to cope and thrive in a world of constant, relentless change.

Road to the Future

As a developing country develops an industrial based economy, studying science, math, and engineering offer big rewards that ensure students an escape from poverty. When the same country achieves stability and prosperity, students have more freedom to study subjects that they find fun and intrinsically motivating.

India needs to identify its own paths to the future in intrinsically innovative way. If we keep doing what we're doing, we're not going to get there.

Conclusion

There is much one could envision for education in the future—the rise and fall of nation-states, changes in global values and financial systems, developments in nanotechnology, rethinking private/public space, or changing aspirations for living standards that might influence a child’s work ethic. Unimagined global possibilities exist. As we look to education’s future, we trust our experience that humans will do what interests them. In education, learning has always succeeded when students actively engage in projects they care about.

There is no question that we are experiencing a fierce pace of change in an increasingly global economy. Schools that ignore the trends shaping tomorrow will cease to be relevant in the lives of their students, and will quickly disappear. We must transform all formal institutions of learning, from pre-K through college, to insure that we are preparing students for their future, not for our past.

The challenge of transforming education in India cannot be met by quick-fix solutions or isolated reforms. It can only be accomplished with a clear, coherent, and coordinated vision of reform. The important thing to note here is that anything we do today to fix our schools will take fifteen to twenty years to show significant results. Leaders of today will need to have clear understanding of how the world may be different 15 to 20 years from now.

We know we do not have all the answers to our educational challenges. Yet not having all the answers cannot become an excuse for inaction. The immediate need to provide an excellent education for every child is a right that cannot be postponed. The time for change is now.

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