India might require a whopping 22 million or 2.2 crore skilled manpower within 2025 as the country is taking a giant leap into the next-generation 5G-led technologies including AI, IoT, cloud computing and robotics, noted the telecom skills body. As per ET Telecom citing the Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC)’s chief executive, Arvind Bali, there is a huge workforce in the need to upskill themselves to match the huge demand in the industry. According to him, India is poised to become a global supplier of human resources and electronics. To achieve this, there is a need to create an extended skill network with both academia and industry participation.
India Needs Skilled Workforce
Set up by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), the Gurugram-based telecom skills council is a non-profit organisation that will ensure the availability of a skilled workforce within the industry. Bali added that India is ripe with talent. He stated that the country is home to the largest pool of human resources in the world and it is important that we leverage the advantage over other countries. An alignment of vocational training and education will be the ideal way to bridge this gap in skills. Currently, India employs nearly 4 million workers, which is close to 60 percent direct workforce that is employed with telecom operators including BSNL, Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea and multinational technology vendors including Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei, Juniper, ZTE, Ciena and Cisco. With the expansion in the labour force in the manufacturing of electronics equipment via the newly launched production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. Furthermore, he noted that the industry has identified the lack of skilled workers that has triggered a huge demand for upskilling the existing and new workers. Back in October, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) stated that India is expected to receive nearly Rs 3,300 crore investment from 31 local and international companies over a period of four years. While the number of skilled workforce is said to be increased, the COVID-19 pandemic has made nearly 70,000 people lose their jobs since its outbreak in 2020. The majority of layoffs were related to the sectors of telecom operations, technology systems integrators, distribution channel representatives and internet providers.
