NEW DELHI: A white paper released by a business think-tank claimed that if India wants to rank among the world’s top three economies in the next 15 years, it must invest in education and human skills going forward. MBAUniverse.com, a network of leading B-schools in the country, organised the 10th edition of the Indian Management Conclave (IMC) and released the white paper on the occasion.
According to the release, India will have to double its GDP, like it did between 2000 and 2006, when it went from 476 billion dollars to 949 billion dollars. This period incidentally saw a strong spurt in management and engineering education. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) target of 35 per cent by 2025 and 50 per cent by 2035 is necessary to meet the target, which only matches with that of China.
The white paper also said the number of universities, which stands at 950, needs to grow to over 1200 by 2025 to sustain the GER growth. One of the authors of the white paper, Amit Agnihotri said, “Population of India will reach 1.40 billion in 2025 which will require more colleges, universities, faculty and higher GER. The draft National Education Policy proposes to increase the current GER of 25.8 per cent to 35 per cent by 2025 along with other key requirements which would contribute to the five trillion dollar economy goal,” he added.
With PTI inputs