In this episode of the State of the Economy podcast, Sanjana B. speaks with Kritika Murugesan, Senior Director of Nasscom Deep Tech & Startups, and Piyush Mehta, Chief Human Resources Officer and Country Manager of Genpact India, about the future of work and fostering innovation and productivity through collaborative approaches to talent development.

Kritika discusses the global tech talent shortage and the importance of ongoing technology training and skilling initiatives. “There is an immense opportunity to address and bridge the digital skills divide prevailing in most of the economies,” Kritika notes. “The tech talent shortage is a global phenomenon, and India’s tech talent demand supply gap, between 20 to 27 percent, is actually the lowest among some of the top tech locations,” she adds. “Organisations and individuals are prioritising ongoing technology training and skilling initiatives to ensure digital skills remain up-to-date and adaptable. Investing in employee skilling is a must-do, and there is no way we could run away from it.”

Piyush highlights the necessity of aligning talent development with business needs. He shares insights into Genpact’s learning programs and partnerships. “ Piyush explains. “At Genpact, we aim to be a growth and AI-first company, so our talent development initiatives must fulfil our growth and AI-first requirements.”

Emphasising the importance of partnerships, he says, “Partnerships become super critical with the speed at which changes are happening. If organisations try to do this alone, we will not be able to fulfil the strategic and growth needs arising. Therefore, robust partnerships with institutions are essential.”

On continuous learning, he states, “It’s essential to have a continuous, evolving learning framework that is at scale. We have upskilled to a basic proficiency level 110,000 of our employees in Gen AI in the last 12 months through our internal learning platform, Genome.”

The podcast also looks at the significance of industry partnerships and the urgency of upskilling employees to stay competitive.

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About the State of the Economy podcast 

India’s economy has been hailed as a bright spot amid the general gloom that seems to have enveloped the rest of the world. But several sectors continue to stutter even as others seem set to fire on all cylinders. To help you make sense of the bundle of contradictions that the country is, businessline brings you podcasts with experts ranging from finance and marketing to technology and start-ups