CEA V Anantha Nageswaran warns the era of software jobs and MBAs is over. He urges youth to focus on trade skills and human-centric professions like caregiving, which are less susceptible to replacement by artificial intelligence (AI).
Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said the era dominated by software jobs and MBA degrees is ending, and urged youth to acquire trade skills and human-centric professions that artificial intelligence (AI) cannot easily replace. In an interview with ANI, Nageswaran emphasised that while India benefited immensely from globalisation in services, the world is now becoming more fragmented and insular, making it imperative for the country to strengthen its manufacturing competitiveness.
Addressing Unemployment and Unemployability
He stressed the need to address both unemployment and unemployability simultaneously. "We have no luxury of worrying about only one of the two issues. We must address both. The answer to an unemployment problem is not to follow the old method because capital intensity of growth is, unfortunately, that's how the world is going. If we follow the Western model and we are a country with scale, there'll be some industries which will be necessarily capital-intensive and attract less labour or cannot employ more labour. We can't be lagging because the world will not supply us with those goods. We have to make some of them ourselves. But there is still a lot of space in the labour-intensive manufacturing and labour-intensive services, caregiving, culinary arts, cooking, and hospital staff, and sports education, especially caregiving for elders and counselling for special needs children. In all these areas, the world needs qualified and trained people, not just India. Those are all the areas which will not be impacted by AI. We need to create employability in these areas. And unemployment is, we should call it a livelihood problem," he said.
'Give Respect to Manual Workers'
The Chief Economic Advisor highlighted that Indians give "little respect" to manual workers like welders, plumbers and electricians etc., in contrast to Switzerland, Japan, Korea or even China. He said Indians need to change their attitude. "This country, compared to other countries which actually have grown successful, take Switzerland, take Germany, take Japan or Korea or even China, they place a lot of respectability on trade skills. In this country, we give them little respect. If you are a welder, a plumber, an electrician, and a carpenter, etc., India doesn't consider [them]. ... You know, so we kind of made it unacceptable, unrespectable, and unfashionable. I think that needs to change," Nageshwaran told ANI.
Trade Skills a Buffer Against Technological Advances
Highlighting the changing nature of work, Nageswaran said technological advancement would not eliminate employability in trade-based and human-facing roles. "The technological advance cannot take away your employability. So you should equip yourself with trade skills. The globalising world gave us an advantage for our software, computer science or MBA education. But that era is over. It's about trade skills. It's about soft skills, which AI cannot easily replace, where human presence is required," he said.
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