Dr Narendra Jadhav, Member, Planning Commission, on Thursday said that the education, health and infrastructure sectors will be given priority in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, set to be implemented from April 1.
“The biggest challenge for us now is to put education and skill development sectors in order,” Dr Jadhav said, while addressing the graduating students of Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, at its 14{+t}{+h} Annual Convocation here today.
As far as the global economy is concerned, India has a ‘safe' future since the country is ‘blessed' with a demographic dividend of a large and growing young population, Dr Jadhav pointed out.
Demographic edge
“The average age in India is only 24. By 2020, our average age will be 29, while China and US's average age will be 37 and 38 years respectively,” Dr Jadhav said. To ‘encash' such a demographic dividend, India will have to put education and skill development in right order and the Planning Commission is working on that front, he added.
By 2022, India will have nearly 500 million skilled young people, even while there is likely to be a major lack of skilled workforce in the entire world. Even China is likely to have a shortage of skilled manpower in the next ten years, he pointed out.
Talking about India's growth story, Dr Jadhav said, “While the US and Europe sunk into recession, India's growth rate dipped from 9 per cent to a little less than 7 per cent. Now, when the European (financial) crisis is engulfing the world, we are still growing at more than 7 per cent and poised to grow at more than 8 per cent.”