India would require as much as 22 million or 2.2 crore skilled manpower by 2025 as the country takes a step into fifth-generation or 5G-led technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and cloud computing, the telecom skills body said.
Arvind Bali, Chief Executive, Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC), said, "Considering technologies like IoT, AI, ML, big data, cloud computing, and robotic process automation, roughly about 22 million workers will be required to skill or upskill themselves to match industry demand by 2025."
According to him, India is poised to become a global supplier for both electronics and human resource, and to achieve this, there would be a need to create an extended skill network with both industry and academia participation.
Gurugram-based telecom skills council is a non-profit organization set up by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), to ensure availability of skilled manpower in the industry.
Bali also said, "India is ripe with talent. We have the largest pool of human resources on the planet, and it is imperative that we leverage the advantage we have over other nations. We feel that an alignment of education and vocational training is the ideal impetus required to bridge this skill-gap."
With expansion in the labour force in electronics equipment manufacturing through the recently introduced production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, Bali said that the industry has also identified the lack of skilled workforce which has triggered a large demand for upskilling of current workers and skilling of fresh workers.
