April, 2011 From the compiler Welcome to April 2011 REEDS NEWS. India possesses a significant demographic dividend. The population of India is 1,210,193,422 [as at 0.00 hours of 1 March 2011 - 2011 Census] 17.5% of world population or a little more than one out of every 6 persons in the world! Various estimates put that by about 2025 India will have 25% of the world's total workforce and by the year 2026, 64.8 percent of the Indian population to be in the working age bracket. Boston Consulting Group study expects that the world would encounter a shortage of 47 million working people by 2020 while India have a surplus of 56 million working people then. India will be able to utilize this dividend meaningfully when it is able to equip its workforce with the appropriate skills. It is indeed a matter of concern that only 5% out of 470 million Indian workforce are vocationally trained. However, it's a huge challenge challenge to creation of scale while ensuring economical sustainability. Student Sourcing / Capacity Building is the most fundamental challenge! Building delivery systems and process to a large number of dispersed centers is another major operational challenge. But the given demand and need for the skilling and more so the government's thrust on skill development this challenge offers a sizeable opportunity, particularly to private players and/or in public-private partnerships. It is a massive opportunity for India to transform its vast work force resource to a skilled and globally competitive one and emerge as a global leader in this space. Taking cognizance of this deficit between demand and supply, the government has set an ambitious plan of training 500 million persons by 2022 ' about 45 million per year from now! The current capacity of the skill development programs is about 3 million. Therefore, the window of opportunity is between now and 2022! Training the target people roughly translates into Rs. 20.0 billion annual spending in vocational training every year. India's massive effort to build up the skills certainly requires an extensive participation of private technical training providers not only from the domestic private sector, but from foreign technical training providers as well. Facilitating the participations and collaborations, government had even notified the regulatory guidelines for foreign universities/institutions to provide technical education, research and training in India. We, at REEDS, have a feeling of satisfaction for taking part in this process - for able to spur the idea of skills development in scale among relevant stake holders through SKILLS2010 International Working Conference on Life Skills and Livelihood Skills Challenges for Institutional Development organized by REEDS in association with Ministry of Labour, Government of India last December at Hyderabad. Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam, former president of India who had inaugurated the SKILLS2010 conference saw our exercise as 'Human Empowerment through knowledge and skills'. We are with commitment carrying the exercise towards developing actionable collaborative training and skill development initiatives in addressing the massive challenge. We are aware the task is enormous but we are determined to realize the goals. We are aiming high - we don't mind getting a stiff neck from aiming too high than a hunchback from aiming too low. I do hope you enjoy reading our REEDS News and I find this communication a great way to keep in touch with you and to say thank you for your continued support. With best regards, Ravi K Reddy, Board of Governor May 30, 2011 In the News We are doing so little about the disparity Ratan Tata "The person who lives in there should be concerned about what he sees around him and [ask] can he make a difference." "If he is not, then it is sad because India needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways to mitigate the hardship that people have." Ratan Tata, The Tata group Chairman, purportedly said in an interview with The Times Daily, UK, commenting on Antilla, the 27 storey, 2 billion US$ Mukesh Ambani's mansion in Mumabi. However, Tatas disputed the reported attribution to its chairman, saying that the comments were taken out of context and his remarks were only in reaction to the the widening gap between the rich and the poor in India. Mukesh Ambani, the second richest in Asia and the ninth richest in the world, was named among the most powerful people in the world in 2010 by Forbes. Guest column Sudhir Paul Water Management Specialist and a Board of Governor of REEDS Take care of our Earth. After all its the only Earth we got! April 22nd marked Earth Day 2011 - A day to remind us of the beauty and fragility of our surroundings and the centrality of water for all! It reminds us to protect this invaluable resource and to ensure access to water for those around the world who need it most. Additionally, sanitation (or a lack thereof) has a profound impact on our Global water resources. Lack of adequate sanitation affects not just those people who must live without those facilities, but also the environment in which they live. The inadequate water and sanitation is the greatest threat to environmental health around the world. UN-Water estimates that two million tons of human waste is disposed in water courses each day. UN-HABITAT and UNEP found that 90% of all wastewater in developing countries is discharged untreated directly into rivers, lakes or open grounds to further percolation. Facts like these underscore the importance of improving sanitation for people, as well as for our environment. They continually remind us of the importance of the work that every individual ought to innovate and improve water and sanitation around the world. Support the cause REEDS welcome support and participation in any manner that suit one's convenience. All the monitory contributions to REEDS qualify for deduction under section 80 G of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961. Forward this to a friend or if you want someone who would like to add to the REEDS NEWS readership, please let us know at inforeeds@gmail.com You are receiving this newsletter because your email reflects in our database. We hope you will enjoy reading it and, if possible, send us your suggestions and observations. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, you can unsubscribe at this link Unsubscribe. Contact: C-206, Vijaya Hills, 11-4-646, AC Guards, Hyderabad. Telephone: (91) 40 2339 7141 Telefax: (91) 40 2339 2221 mail : inforeeds@gmail.com, web site: www.reeds.in This edition of REEDS NEWS is sponsored by: www.abcspl.in