Education, skill devp and enhancing employability need of the hour: Pranab

Kolkata: Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee said that education, skill development and enhancing employability are the most urgent needs, with India set to become home to the world's largest working population by 2022, as well as a global supplier of workforce.

According to Mukherjee, if India harbours the hope of reaping demographic dividends, it must make sure its people are educated and skilled enough.

"India's potential is huge, but the failure to tap the potential in the right manner will frustrate its aspiration to become a global power," Mukherjee said, while addressing a large assembly of young entrepreneurs at a special session organised by Young Indians (Yi), the youth wing of CII on Saturday evening.

"The oldest civilisation will be younger and younger. The responsibility lies on you to remove disparity, inequality and provide leadership. Otherwise, I am afraid, demographic advantage will turn into a demographic disaster," he maintained.

Mukherjee, who holds the record of becoming the youngest finance minister of the country, exhorted the country's youth to work towards ending the growing wealth gap. "There is an emerging divergence of haves and have-nots," he said, adding that disparity exists not just on health and education parameters, but also on income distribution. Such a situation is "unacceptable" and the youth must "look inward" if they are keen to end this," he said.

A recent report on the Indian economic situation between 2013 and 2017 states that 71 percent of the total wealth generated in India is accumulated by 21 percent people; while the remaining 79 percent of the population are left with 29 percent of the wealth. "This cannot go on for long. Change has to be brought about by the young people, not by me, not by anybody else," he told the Yi members present at the event.