The Indian economy, which is enjoying near double-digit growth rates, faces a grave manpower problem. Several recent surveys and studies have pointed out that the country’s “inexhaustible” supply of skilled workers is now getting exhausted. What is even more worrying is that this acute shortage of skills has penetrated into various crucial sectors of the economy, including health, education, information technology (IT), food processing, oil and natural gas, civil aviation, textiles and environment.

The health sector is facing a severe skills crunch. The supply of doctors, nurses and paramedics seems to be falling short of demand. According to Fortis Healthcare director (public private partnership) Rajesh Bhalla, one cannot deny that there exists a paucity of doctors. The shortage in rural areas can be attributed to poor salary structures and even more poor infrastructure. In urban areas, such shortages are caused by a growing population and the increasing number of hospitals in the face of a stagnant medical college base.

“Unlike the government sector, the private sector is facing a genuine scarcity of trained doctors, nurses and paramedics,” Bhalla said. “This demand-supply gap has resulted in rising salaries of these professionals.”

Meanwhile, even the fast growing and much-hyped IT sector seems to be falling short of its requirement of various categories of engineers. According to Aptech executive director R Krishnan, revenues in the IT sector are directly proportional to the number of trained people available. Hence, the sector’s growth and competitiveness is getting affected by the talent shortage. “The IT sector is facing a crunch of skilled labour because companies are scaling up but the availability of trained manpower is unable to meet the huge demand,” he said.

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