JRD Tata Oration Sixteenth 2023-By- Natarajan Chandrasekaran

JRD Tata Oration Sixteenth 2023-By- Natarajan Chandrasekaran



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Governing Board
Chairperson
Prof K Srinath Reddy
Vice Chairperson
Mr Rajya Vardhan Kanoria
Members
Dr Ajai Chowdhry
Mr Kiran Karnik
Ms Ishita Chaudhry
Ms Maja Daruwala
Ms Priya Paul
Mr Ratan N Tata
Dr Shireen Jejeebhoy
Dr Soumya Swaminathan
Dr Syeda Hameed
Prof Vikram Harshad Patel
Mr Vinod Rai
Executive Director
Ms Poonam Muttreja
Advisory Council
Chairperson
Ms Srilatha Batliwala
Members
Dr Arvind Pandey
Ms Karminder Kaur
Dr Leela Visaria
Dr Meenakshi Gopinath
Dr Mirai Chatterjee
Dr Pramath Sinha
Mr Prem Das Rai
Dr Rajani Ved
Dr Raman Kataria
Mr Sanjoy Hazarika
Dr Saroj Pachauri
Dr Sonalini Mirchandani
Prof Suneeta Mittal
Dr Vikas Amte
Ms Roli Singh, Additional
Secretary & Mission Director,
National Health Mission,
Ministry of Health & Family
Welfare, Government of India,
ex officio
Ms Poonam Muttreja, ex officio

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Contents
About Population Foundation of India
1
and the JRD Tata Oration
Foreword
2
Natarajan Chandrasekaran – A Profile
4
The Oration
7
The JRD Tata Oration Over the Years
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...achievement of demographic objectives is
entirely dependent on a whole set of societal
responses and policy initiatives which go well
beyond contraception.
JRD Tata

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About Population Foundation of India
and the JRD Tata Oration
Founded in 1970 by the late JRD Tata, Population Foundation of
India is a leading NGO in the fields of population dynamics, gender
equity, and sexual and reproductive health (SRH). It addresses
population issues within the context of empowering women, men,
and young people, enabling them to make informed decisions
about their fertility, health, and well-being. The organization’s
approaches include strategic engagement with policymakers,
media, and other key stakeholders; knowledge generation and
dissemination; leveraging technology; scaling up pilot projects;
and social and behavior change communication. Population
Foundation of India also collaborates closely with and provides
technical support to both national and state governments, as well
as other NGOs.
Since 1990, the Population Foundation of India has hosted
an annual lecture series featuring distinguished international
and national speakers addressing pressing issues related to
population and development. This series serves as a platform to
honor the legacy of JRD Tata and to shed light on contemporary
challenges in population dynamics. Each event encourages lively
discussions, with eminent guests and experts engaging with the
speaker’s insights, thus facilitating a rich exchange of ideas. This
booklet contains a transcript of this year’s lecture, delivered by
Mr N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons.
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Foreword
Poonam Muttreja
Executive Director, Population Foundation of India
The 16th JRD Tata Memorial Oration I 2
In the illustrious history of the JRD Tata
Memorial Oration, initiated in 1995 to
honor our founder Mr JRD Tata, this year’s
oration, delivered by Mr N Chandrasekaran,
Chairman of Tata Sons, marks a significant
milestone. The series has been a vanguard,
highlighting pressing issues related to
population and development, and has
been delivered by luminaries such as Dr
Amartya Sen, Mr IK Gujral, Mr Jamshed J
Irani, Dr Manmohan Singh, and Dr Soumya
Swaminathan, among others.
Mr Chandrasekaran’s oration, titled
“Harnessing the Power of India’s Youth,”
is of profound significance in the context
of the current demographic landscape of
India. Today, India stands as the world’s
most populous country after surpassing
China in 2023. It is also home to the
largest young population (10-24 years) in
the world, a staggering 370 million. This
youthful demographic, comprising about
one-third of our nation, represents both
extraordinary potential and a challenge.
In his oration, Mr Chandrasekaran focuses
on the crucial role of India’s youth in
global transitions, the need to improve
female workforce participation rates and a
“Bridgital” approach, combining digital and

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AI technologies to bridge the gaps in education and healthcare.
His insights into ensuring access to quality education, healthcare,
and equal opportunities for all, especially for girls and women,
resonate with the vision and mission of Population Foundation of
India.
The importance of women’s participation in India’s development
cannot be overstated. Representing half of our nation’s population,
the empowerment of women and girls is fundamental to realizing
India’s potential. The troubling reality that a significant portion of
Indian women still marry before the age of 18 highlights the urgent
need for changes in sociocultural norms and practices.
Mr Chandrasekaran’s visionary address is not only a clarion
call for action, but also a reminder that in order to leverage our
demographic advantage, India must prioritize holistic investments
in our youth, particularly in women and girls, besides harnessing
technological innovation to ensure last-mile coverage. The address
also highlights Mr Chandrasekaran and Tata group’s commitment
to educational reform, gender equality, and social responsibility.
To quote the late Mr JRD Tata, it’s only through systematic
investment in adolescents’ well-being that we can “prepare them
for the tasks of tomorrow.”
Poonam Muttreja
Executive Director, Population Foundation of India
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Natarajan Chandrasekaran - A Profile
Natarajan Chandrasekaran
Chairman, Tata Sons
Natarajan Chandrasekaran (Chandra) is the Chairman
of Tata Sons, the holding company and promoter of
all Tata Group companies. Chandra joined the Board
of Tata Sons in October 2016 and was appointed
Chairman in January 2017. He also chairs the Boards
of several group operating companies, including Tata
Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Air India, Tata
Chemicals, Tata Consumer Products, Indian Hotel
Company and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) – of
which he was the Chief Executive Officer from
2009-17.
His appointment as Chairman of Tata Sons, followed
a 30-year business career at TCS, which he joined
from university. Chandra rose through the ranks at
TCS to become the CEO and Managing Director of
the leading global IT solution and consulting firm.
Under his leadership, TCS generated total revenues
of US $16.5 billion in 2015-16 and consolidated its
position as the largest private sector employer in
India and the country’s most valuable company.
Since he has taken over as Chairman, Chandra has
been driving transformation of the group towards
digital, sustainability and supply chain resilience.
The group has forayed into new businesses including
electronics manufacturing, consumer internet
platform and mobile technology for 5G in India.The
Tata group has expanded its aviation presence with
the acquisition of Air India and is building a large
global airline. The group’s turnover stood at over
US$150 billion with a market cap of US$300 billion
as on 31st March, 2023.
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In addition to his professional career at Tata, Chandra is on the
International Advisory Council of Singapore’s Economic
Development Board. He is the Chairman of Indian Institute of
Management, Lucknow as well as the President of the Court at
Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He is the member of the
Mitsubishi’s International Advisory Committee and the Co-Chair
of the India US CEO Forum. He is also on the Board of Governors
of New York Academy of Sciences and has been elected as an
international member of the United States National Academy of
Engineering (NAE).
Chandra was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, one of the
highest civilian awards in India, in the field of trade and industry
in 2022.The French Government conferred him with Légion
d’Honneur, highest civilian award in France for his outstanding
business successes and decisive contribution to strengthening
Indo-French economic ties. President Eisenhower Global Award
for Leadership by the Business Council for International
Understanding (BCIU) was conferred to him in 2022. Chandra has
been awarded several honorary doctorates by leading Universities
in India and internationally, including an honorary Doctor of
Letters from Macquarie University, Australia, Doctor Honoris
Causa by Nyenrode University, The Netherlands, honorary Doctor
of Science by the Aligarh Muslim University, and Doctor of Letters
from the Regional Engineering College, Trichy, Tamil Nadu, where
he completed a Masters Degree in Computer Applications, before
joining TCS in 1987.
Chandra is also the author of Bridgital Nation, a groundbreaking
book on harnessing technological disruptions to bring Indians
closer to their dreams.
Chandra is an avid photographer, and a passionate long-distance
marathon runner. He is a Six Star Finisher of the World Marathon
Majors and continues to champion fitness.
Born in 1963, Chandra lives in Mumbai, with his wife Lalitha.
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‘Harnessing the Power of India’s Youth’
The Oration by N Chandrasekaran
Good afternoon, everyone.
Being with you all this afternoon is a great honour and pleasure.
First, I would like to thank Dr Srinath Reddy, Ms Poonam Muttreja,
Dr Shireen Jejeebhoy, and Population Foundation of India for
giving me this opportunity to share a few thoughts on this important
topic. Before I proceed, let me also acknowledge and remember
the great JRD Tata, who, like everything else he did during his
time, had enormous foresight and vision to have founded an
institution of this nature.
During the last few days, while preparing for this lecture, I had the
opportunity to read the history of this institution, and it is a great,
great privilege. I also want to congratulate Ms Poonam Muttreja
for the tremendous work that your institution is carrying out.
Now, coming to the topic, it is a very important and profound
topic for today. It matters most to the younger people in this country
because their aspirations are high, and their needs are not met. It
matters even more to the girls and women who do not participate
in the opportunities, and it matters to the economy, businesses,
and society at large.
It matters most to the younger people in this
country because their aspirations are high,
and their needs are not met.
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I do want to dwell on this topic. If I may say so, this topic has two
connotations or perspectives. First, it means the young population
of India. Second is India’s youthfulness as a nation. We are a young
country, at the same time, we have an ancient history. The Republic
of India is only 75 years old. We are still learning, discovering
ourselves, and are at the developmental stage. But we have
enormous potential and the power to become a global force,
especially in today’s uncertain world.
I want to talk about five large segments. The first is in the context
of the world today, our context, the challenges we face and some
of the significant transitions happening. And then, finally, in all
this context, what does it mean to address our challenges and
harness our true power?
We have gone through a lot in the last 3 or 4 years. While we were
seeing a rather stable world in the Cold War Era, the pandemic hit
us. We seem to have already forgotten all about it because our
memory is very short. In those two years, there were many nights
and days one thought normalcy would never return. And here we
are, almost having forgotten the hardships of those two years, and
we are living life as usual. But the pandemic exposed several
things. It exposed the world’s interconnected nature, the failure in
that interconnectedness, and what it can do to people’s lives.
But the pandemic exposed several things. It
exposed the world’s interconnected nature,
the failure in that interconnectedness, and
what it can do to people’s lives
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In business, we loosely use the word ‘supply chain’. We tend to
use many words and jargon, assuming that the whole world is
familiar with this jargon. But the supply chains gave away big time,
bringing practically the world as a whole to a halt overnight.
Growth slowed down, especially in the developed economies.
Things stabilised after the pandemic. We thought things were
returning to normalcy, and then, before we knew it, we were in
the middle of two wars. The China-US tensions have significantly
impacted global trade. While all of this is happening, it is the first
time the developing economies will contribute more to economic
growth than the developed economies. It is the first time the
developed economies are getting used to inflation levels they were
never used to. So, there is a change in dynamics in how global
economic growth will look going forward. It is a decisive shift that
has happened or is happening, depending on who you talk to.
However, in my limited experience, I do not know of a time when
multiple transitions were happening simultaneously. I want to talk
a little bit about that. We loosely call it digital transition, artificial
intelligence transition, generative AI, and so on, but it is accurate.
Artificial intelligence technologies will impact every country,
developed or developing, rich or poor, every society and every
business, whether you are a traditional industry or a modern
industry, tech industry, service industry, or manufacturing industry;
its effect will be profound. AI will enhance productivity and create
many things hitherto that were unknown or considered impossible.
There are extreme views on AI - those who think it’s going to
change the world so much for the better that all the problems are
going to disappear, and the other extreme that it’s going to take all
Significant impact of artificial intelligence
technologies on every society
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the jobs away and the rich are going to get richer and the poor are
going to get poorer. There are many unknowns, and you can’t fault
anyone for having a perspective, but it can be significantly
beneficial if we plan for it. Let me put it this way: it will happen;
plan for it. I will come to that in a minute.
The second transition is called the energy transition, or
sustainability transition, which has a broader connotation. We
should be thinking about more than just decarbonisation and net
zero. There are many sustainability goals, and all of them should
be included. It should be an all encompassing transition, but it is
happening. It will not get delayed because the public pressure
will only mount, and rightly so. But considering energy alone, the
energy requirement of our world will significantly increase. All the
energy requirement predictions out there will get further enhanced
as we go into the future, as there will be more technology and
more artificial intelligence. More deployment of AI means more
data, more processing, more data centres, and a requirement for
more power. AI alone will increase the energy requirement by
The transition to sustainable energy sources is
broader than just decarbonisation
almost 100 terawatts, an equivalent requirement for a country like
Holland. That’s the level at which the energy demands will go up.
So, the world will need to meet this energy demand with new
energy. Today, we often think the new energy is only solar and
wind. Some talk about hydrogen regions, but there will be a
plethora of new sources over the next two decades.
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Almost 20 different technologies will become common over the
next two decades. This will require a lot of investment, capital,
human resources, skill upgrading, and new jobs. We will come to
that.
The third transition is the supply chain transition. Over the last
30, 40, and 50 years, the entire manufacturing industry and all
industries globally have been pushing for efficiency, and more
efficiency. This meant that you sourced, assembled, and produced
parts globally wherever it was cheaper and labour was available.
a lot of capital is going in, and a tremendous
amount of talent, skills, and new jobs are
necessary
Then you moved things around and finally made the product in
one place and shipped it elsewhere. This kind of supply chain
failed during the pandemic—also due to the geopolitics today. So,
there is an enormous hurry to create alternate supply chain bases,
and India is in the middle of it. I’ll give some examples and what
it means. Again, a lot of capital is going in, and a tremendous
amount of talent, skills, and new jobs are necessary. So, this is the
overall scenario.
In this context, if you look at India, we are making significant
progress economically. We are becoming bigger and bigger. We
are the fifth-largest economy, slated to become the third in the
next few years and will overtake the United States to be the second
sometime in the next few decades. From a positioning perspective,
we do have a lot of stability today. Even though the Indian currency
is stable, macro factors are good. Our banking system is healthy,
by and large, well-regulated, our exports are increasing, a huge
investment cycle led by private and public spending. And the most
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1
3
2
Clockwise (1-3): (1) (left to right) Dr K Srinath Reddy, Chairperson of Population Foundation of India’s Governing Board,
N Chandrasekaran,Chairman of Tata Sons, Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director of Population Foundation of India, and
Dhan Singh Rawat, the honourable Health Minister of Uttarakhand; (2) (left to right) Our Board Members Dr Syeda S Hameed and
Dr Shireen Jejeebhoy along with Anita George,Independent Director at Tata Sons; (3) N Chandrasekaran delivering the oration
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4
6
5
Clockwise (4-6): (4) The oration was held at the Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi; (5) Poonam Muttreja
introduces N Chandrasekaran; (6) N Chandrasekaran responds to audience questions.
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important thing that we have achieved is a strong, scalable digital
public infrastructure. This digital public infrastructure is one of the
best in the world. Such an integrated public infrastructure has a
huge advantage during all these transitions, and that is a big, big,
big positive.
Above all, relevant to today’s topic, our most significant strength
is our youthful workforce because we have 70 crore people under
the age of 30. Given where the rest of the world is, our growth rate
for the foreseeable future is likely to be faster than anyone else of
material size or per capita income, which is around roughly
$2,500 and will close to double this decade. But the problem is
this: $2,500 is 60% lower than the global median, and our problem
is not the average. Our problem is disaggregation. We have a lot
of disparities. Some states have a significantly higher per capita
income; others are low. The disparity is huge. You can either say
north or south, you can say northeast versus south, or you can take
specific states that are really low. So, we have the problem of
disparity, which is enormous, and that is showing up in many other
parameters
we have the problem of disparity, which is
enormous, and that is showing up in many
other parameters.
We have a very large talented workforce—today, we have an
estimated 16% of the global AI talent. This number will significantly
increase because we produce the highest number of STEM
graduates anywhere in the world, a vast number. I know this from
my practical experience because I’ve assembled large teams of
STEM people in every part of the world, from Western India to
America, Africa, and every other part of the world. It takes a lot of
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work to find qualified people. On the other hand, in terms of
volume, we have the highest or the largest number of unskilled
labour. Our national education levels continue to be low. We have
only 24% workforce participation of women, but if my data point
is correct, more than 12 crore women with an eighth or twelfth-
grade education still do not work. And even if half the number of
women are eligible to work, our GDP will go up by half a trillion
dollars.
more than 12 crore women with an eighth or
twelfth-grade education still do not work
Another disparity we have is in education outcomes. It’s good in
some places, in others, it’s very bad. So, you hear all the
commentaries: that they produce a lot of people, educate a lot of
people, but they are unemployable. So, we have a disparity. So,
broadly, the problem is one of inclusion and inclusive growth.
The fact remains that we are going to do well economically. We’re
going to grow. Our GDP will grow from 3 trillion to 5 trillion
economy to 10 trillion economy to 25 trillion economy in the next
three decades. But while growing, how do we simultaneously
solve—whether you call it inclusive growth, equitable growth,
and give opportunities for people—how do we solve the education
and healthcare issues to ensure that basic education and healthcare
are available to everyone, irrespective of who they are or where
they come from?
In this context, the skills that are required must be thought through
very carefully. Education for the future requires the basic education
that we all receive and impart. We need education to provide what
I call twenty-first-century skills. We want everyone to be digitally
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fluent. We want everyone to have problem-solving skills. We will
need to teach people how to collaborate. We need to teach
creativity. So, it’s more than just educating people; it is educating
people with the right inputs.
Education for the future requires the basic
education that we all receive and impart
Now, coming to “harnessing the power of the youth”, the topic for
today. Any social transformation will require an economic
transformation. You can only sustain a social transformation by
achieving economic transformation and economic success. The
basic fact is that you need a vibrant environment of jobs to sustain
any development. Once we have this growth, the growth
opportunity, we can address and should address inclusion.
On the one hand, you need to invest disproportionately in
healthcare, primary healthcare (I will give you a couple of
examples) and primary education skills. But, given the size and
scale of the population, we need to do it in such a way that we are
smart about it. You cannot solve a healthcare problem by going on
a spree of building only a large number of hospitals and waiting
for graduating many doctors. You all probably have more data than
I do. Still, there is an estimated shortage of 500,000 doctors, and
you cannot produce them overnight. You need to use the power of
technology to be able to maximise what we can do with the
infrastructure that we have while continuing to build new
infrastructure and upskill the people to be able to provide certain
services which are at a higher level than what they are capable of,
primarily with the aid of technology—digital artificial intelligence.
We need to invest significantly in skills because the training must
be more than just people who study their schooling and then go
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into tertiary education doing sciences or arts. We need both
normal and apprentice skills-based practical education so people
can pursue things they are interested in and get onto jobs. So, our
skills have to be very focused.
there is an estimated shortage of
500,000 doctors
We call this approach a Bridgital Approach.
I should have brought the book, which I didn’t. We wrote this
book in 2019 and just did one book launch, and then the pandemic
hit, so our book tour went for a toss. However, I could see the
problems outlined in the book come to life during the pandemic,
reinforcing my belief in the concept. I’m going to give you a couple
of examples here. We have done a project, wherein we conducted
three pilots. One of the largest ones is in Kolar in Karnataka. So,
we have created a very advanced technology hub—we call it a
digital nerve center- where all the expert doctors are available.
There are 35 lakh citizens in the whole district.
We need both normal and apprentice
skills-based practical education so people
can pursue things they are interested in
We trained all the Asha workers. We have developed dedicated
technology apps and have given them all a modern device
connected to the digital nerve center. It is hugely successful, and
it serves every household. We are keeping it going, it is still
operational. The whole idea is to see how to scale it up. Proactively,
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we have information about citizens in the district. They handle
every pregnancy. I can go into details about each of the services
but then take the rest of the day here, but any of you who are
interested should visit that place. I can organise somebody to host
you. It basically has obviated all these people to go to a tertiary
hospital. Generally, people go straight to tertiary hospitals as they
don’t trust the government hospital. They go to the OPD. That’s
completely obviated, and the experts are available for any type of
problem.
It will be nice to watch how medicine is administered remotely.
So, it is possible. It has created 400-500 jobs. Every worker is able
to perform a higher level task. See, India has this “missing middle”
problem. We either have the experts, or we have the low-skilled
people. We don’t have the people in between, so what happens is
that the low-skilled people cannot go up, so the experts come
down and spend 50% of their time doing things that they shouldn’t
be doing. This solves the problem, freeing up the time for the
experts to do what only they can do. So, this is a digital intervention,
a significant digital intervention in which there is technology
involved, skill development involved, and outreach involved.
Initially, people will need more confidence and trust in you. Then,
there will be one example, two examples, and three examples—
then things work out. The power of the digital public infrastructure
in the country is enormous because, first of all, we have a
mechanism for everyone to have a digital identity. See, I don’t
believe the problem is jobs because in India everything is an
informal economy. Everybody is doing something, but the problem
is secure jobs, the problem is well-paying jobs. Most people don’t
get what they should be getting, so though it is essential to address
the jobs, it’s equally important to address the right income.
With the help of this digital infrastructure, we also have Pradhan
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Mantri and Jan Dhan Yojna individual accounts, so direct benefits
could happen. We couldn’t have done the vaccination without
the digital infrastructure. We would have struggled because this
country’s size, scale and complexity are so vast.
How would we have managed? We wouldn’t have been able to
take care of the tracking. So, this infrastructure allows anyone to
get onto the network through a mobile phone or any other device.
It is a digital way of solving the inclusion problem. But then, how
do you ensure that everyone has access to a device? That’s the next
thing to address. What we need to do, and what is happening, is
to continue to build more stacks. The example I gave on healthcare.
That stack has to be constructed entirely so that the power of the
healthcare solution can reach across the nation. In every area,
there will be new applications that will come in - some will be
government-led, and some will be private-sector-led because all
the ‘protocols’ (another jargon) are published, so anyone can build
a solution and then have to build the ecosystem. According to me,
this is the only way. I don’t want to say this is not the only way, but
it is a significantly important way to address the inclusion problem.
While we must make all the investments and necessary capital to
be allocated and teach, we have a huge shortage of teachers. I
don’t know what the number is; I used to hear that every year, the
requirement of teachers goes up by 40,000. So, we need digital
interventions. All these solutions, we call it stack across sectors. It
can be built, and this needs to be scaled up. So, we talk about
skills. So, at the Tata group, we are doing many efforts in all these
areas. All our companies are hugely invested in skill development.
We also do it in the Tata Trusts; we also do it in Tata Sons. For
example, the power company runs a huge skill development effort
for the power sector. They have got 50 centers. Auto company
does skill development efforts, and we have a group called Tata
Strive which has got 150 centers, that does skill development
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across sectors: manufacturing services, health care, hospitality.
They have got 150 centers across 25 States. They have trained
about 13 lakh people, and they track who is employed and they
have got an alumni network, and we know from statistics more
than 75% of the people are not only well employed and they are
going up. They are pursuing a career, and they just keep, keep
moving up, and they come back.
Some of them are passionate and come back and teach between
their jobs. In partnership with the government, we have announced
and set up two major national institutes—we call it Tata Indian
Institute of Skills, one in Bombay and one in Ahmedabad. These
centres will be hubs, and they will have spokes everywhere. The
idea is to increase the scale of skill development significantly. In
Chennai, through TCS, we set up a modern skill incubation centre.
There, it is not skill development; it is developing the technology
for skill development. So, a lot can be done, and we want to
borrow those technologies and put them in this Indian Institute of
Skills.
See, I want to give you another beautiful example. We have set up
this electronics-manufacturing factory in Tamil Nadu, in Hosur.
We set this up during the pandemic, and it went into commercial
operation last year. It has hired 15,000 people in the previous year
and is commercialised. It’s working; it is in production. Of these
15,000 people, 95% are young women in 12th grade who pass
out. We couldn’t hire enough people in the Hosur area. Many
people came from Bihar and Jharkhand. They’ve been trained on
what it is to do high-precision manufacturing. They manufacture
the parts that go into the Apple phones. You must see how they
speak and their level of confidence. It is just unbelievable. You
have to see it to believe. You go day one, and they don’t know
anything; they don’t know what to do. They have hired me. How
will I know what to do? But now, one year later, if you go and see,
they have enormous confidence.
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I believe that our children, not necessarily those who go to
colleges, but people from the rural areas, are extremely talented,
provided we can harness them. Now, it has become a routine
thing for me to send people there to see and then come back and
give feedback. So, we will be 50,000 people, and I’m worried
about the high concentration of women. So, it would help, if you
went 70%, not 90% or 95%.
So, these three trends of artificial intelligence, energy transition,
and manufacturing in the supply chain offer enormous potential.
So, we need to invest in the training of these people because they
earn and have also started sending money home. It changes, it’s
phenomenal. It is not that they make a lot of money (I don’t know
how much money they make). They make 15,000 rupees or
something like that, but in that they save money, they send money.
They got a hostel, so they live there, so not much to do in the
factory environment. Their parents are happy. So, it kind of creates
an ecosystem effect.
So, to my mind, manufacturing will happen in electronics,
batteries, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and food processing.
There are so many new areas—proteins. So, we need to invest in
large-scale training. Large scale training and all these skills don’t
require high-end skills; they all can be trained.
See, India will play on both ends.
We will play in very high-end artificial intelligence and services,
high-end services, latest technologies. We will also play in the
low end—I don’t want to say low end-manufacturing jobs. You
don’t need it, maybe high, but not cutting edge. So, we need to be
playing across the spectrum because we need skills everywhere,
we need people everywhere, we need jobs everywhere.
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So, I would like to conclude by saying we are a very confident
nation. There’s a lot of aspiration and energy in our younger
people. We need to be investing, on the one hand, in big economic
development and, on the other hand, in human resources.
I broadly call it human resources because it includes everything. It
includes skills, it includes education, it includes their well-being,
all of that. And if we do this and deploy technology, I am a big
believer that our problem is—one is access, other one is jobs and
income. We shouldn’t be solving it with two different access. We
should be solving it by connecting it, and the connection is
technology. That is why I call it bridgital. So, a plug: if you really
want to know more, please read my book.
Thank You.
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The JRD Tata Memorial Oration Over the Years
Below are the topics and speakers from past orations:
1. Democratic Decentralisation and Population Stabilisation Strategies
by Mr Ramakrishna Hegde, former chief minister of Karnataka
(September 19, 1995)
2. Population and Development Crisis in India
by Mr Chandra Shekhar, former prime minister of India (October 26, 1996)
3. Role of Empowerment of Women in Population Stabilisation
by Dr Najma Heptulla, former deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha
(November 29, 1997)
4. Thrust Areas for Population Stabilisation
by Mr I K Gujral, former prime minister of India (January 15, 1999)
5. A ‘New Woman’ for India- A New India for Women
by Dr Nafis Sadik, former special adviser to the UN secretary general
(December 13, 1999)
6. National Population Policy 2000 - Role of the National Commission on Population
by Mr K C Pant, former defence minister of India (November 3, 2000)
7. Role and Responsibilities of Panchayats in Population Health and Development
by Mr Digvijaya Singh, former chief minster of Madhya Pradesh
(December 4, 2001)
8. Population, Poverty and Sustainable Development
by Dr Manmohan Singh, former prime minister of India (February 3, 2003)
9. Towards Population Stabilization: Role of Good Governance by Mr Somnath
Chatterjee, former speaker of the Lok Sabha (March 30, 2005)
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10. Corporate Social Responsibility and Issues of Population Stabilisation in India
by Dr Jamshed J Irani, former director of Tata Steel
(July 22, 2008)
11. Demographic Dividend or Debt?
by Dr Nitin Desai, economist and former international civil servant
(March 26, 2010)
12. Women and Other People
by Prof Amartya Sen, economist and philosopher, awarded the 1998 Nobel
Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
(July 31, 2012)
13. Dignity and Choice for girls and women in the post-2015 framework
by Late Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, former health minister of Nigeria
(April 24, 2015)
14. Women Empowerment: The Key to India’s Demographic Dividend
by Dr Rajiv Kumar, economist and former vice-chairman of Niti Aayog
(October 12, 2018)
15. Reimagining Health: Lessons from the Pandemic
by Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist of the World Health Organisation
(October 12, 2020)
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