‘PLI is a good start but our massive youth population in the northern states not getting skilled in advance technologies is a real threat in becoming a large economic power and therefore not being able to fund a military to keep pace with China.
Lol, let me tell you from my experience 5-6 years ago. I don't know if things have changed or not, but I don't think they have changed.
Govt of India launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), its flagship program, under National Skill Development Mission. What was the aim? Skill training of youth at large scale. How did things go? Well read here:
- Students were not at all interested in joining the course. They only joined because govt was providing Rs 500 per month and free goodies (T-shirt etc). So they joined because they wanted a free certificate and the typical Indian mentality for freebies.
- The students who joined, did not want to attend classes at all. PMKVY institutes had bought equipment and hired teachers for the program (there were inspections by a private company chosen by govt before granting the course), all in waste. If students were forced to attend classes, well they simply dropped the course. They wanted to prepare for govt jobs, so they were not at all interested in "skill development". Consequently the instructors were released by the institutions.
- So most of the students were untrained before the final test (conducted by the private company, chosen by the govt) and they sent a representative to conduct the exam (this is the source for me). They saw none of the students had any skill at all as they didn't attend any class. But the company got money only when the students passed. So what did the representatives do? They took bribes and managed the exam in some way.
- Conclusion: Students got money, free goodies and free certificate. Company and institution got money from govt. Govt got a statistics to show that they trained so many people.
- Actual achievement = Nil.
I have seen so many colleges (even reputed govt ones) where students do not attend classes at all. All they want is free degrees so that it opens prospects of govt jobs. I have seen so many students with masters and PhD degrees, who have less knowledge than UG IIT grads or even UPSC candidates, because they were preparing for SSC types of exams instead of attending classes. For eg: UPSC aspirants studying environment for a generalist exam have more knowledge than PG in Environment student.
We Indians have a habit of wanting things/success without any hard work. This is typically represented in our voting pattern. We will vote for free milk, free ration, free electricity, free scooters, free bicycles, fake promises of govt jobs because they don't have to work there. You can see this in lower level of bureaucracy, which is corrupt beyond any thing, while their output is the least said the better.
It will be very difficult to change this mentality because it is ingrained in us. This can only be worked from child level through school education, which itself is poor, at least in most govt schools.
Edit: One more thing. Most of the students who attended these programs didn't even had basic knowledge to learn anything. For eg, a student to be trained in electrician related course needs to have at least class 10th knowledge. These students didn't even know about electrons, voltage, current, circuit diagram, etc. Only god knows what they did in school.