Thoughts on Urban Indian Youth

A lot is said about the demographic dividend in South East Asian countries, especially India. A lot of growth is projected based on this young population that exists and that is going to exist in the decade to come. However, when I see the youth, especially the urban, learned youth, I'm afraid India might lose out on this amazing opportunity and the demographic dividend might become a population problem.
I have come to a conclusion that the urban youth of today has become lazy, impatient, demanding and indifferent.

The urban youth of today does not want to do any work himself/herself. He (Shall keep it to "he" but it is equally applicable to "she") would like to direct someone else to do the work for him. He considers himself to know-it-all even before getting hands on experience. Today's youth wants more money, wants annual (if not half-yearly) double-digit increment, more facilities, favorable working conditions, etc; yet his productivity is not even equal to that given by the older generation. Agreed that the older generation was not so highly educated, but being educated doesn't mean only demanding things. He should also show that the quality of his work and his productivity deserves the amount of resources demanded.
One person who joined a well-known investment banking firm started talking about the expected increment & bonus in the 1st month into work (Mind you, he was a fresher) & started making plans of his next job if the increment was not up to his expectations. I mean, he still didn't know which department he would be in, the work he would be doing; yet all that mattered was the level of bonus / increment to be earned, irrespective of the level of output given.

I myself consider me lazy. When I consider to the number of tasks done by my parents regularly even at this age, I feel ashamed and humbled by my inferiority.

The youth of today, especially the urban youth has become highly demanding. While it is good to demand and know what you want (Customer is king and all), being unreasonable in demands is what it has come to. An uneducated house servant was given a lot many tasks and when he missed out on one insignificant task, he was made to listen to loud lecture without even  knowing the reason behind him not performing the task. Mind you that insignificant task was so simple to be done that the master could have done it in 2 mins without any major troubles. Yet, he didn't do it and gave a big 5 mins lecture to the servant instead.


The level of indifference in today's youth can be seen in any of the shopping malls of any urban/ suburban metro city. The way people communicate to the attendants in restaurants and shops says it all. Apathy is the word when I see a lot of people faking accents in the shopping malls in front of the shop attendants who have a tough time understanding them.


This is the behaviour I've been seeing lately in general in Mumbai among educated young people. I will not even comment on the time wasted by the youth in their places of work. That's a different story altogether. I also shall not say anything on cultural change, parental neglect, etc which I believe depends on youth's upbringing.


There are exceptions to all generalizations and thankfully there are quite a few people who are exceptions to the rule. Hope the youth of today gives up its laziness, indifference and starts to become more tolerant and starts working hard to make true the demographic dividend promise.

What after IT growth declines?

The past decade in India has been majorly driven by the growth in IT and ITes. This sector has been the job creator for the last decade especially among the rising number of engineers. The IT companies have been well known to provide jobs to college graduates of any engineering field as long as he/she is able to read and write properly :P. But son a serious note, the majority of the employment generated during the past decade has been in this field. However, the future growth of this sector is not looking that strong, Like everything has an expiry date, even the growth of this sector has been and the growth rate in this sector is now falling. Going by reports of Infosys and some Indian major IT companies, the forecast for the next year is bleak and growth shall be tepid in the future.
Lower growth means less hiring and as a result shall lead to unemployment amongst educated Indians. India desperately needs a new sector where the graduates from colleges can be placed like the IT companies. So, which sector shall replace the IT sector? Where shall majority of employment be generated in the future? I ponder over such questions at times.

The new manufacturing policy announced by GOI seems to be the answer to this. The aim of the policy is to generate 100 million jobs in the next decade. While the intention of the policy seems to be right and also the approach seems right, I doubt whether the target of generating 100 million jobs shall be met.

I think that the following reasons will act as a deterent for youths, specially engineers to join manufacturing:
1. Physically tough conditions - Manufacturing generally involves working in industrial areas under tough physical conditions like noise, vibrations, pollution, etc
2. Shifts in factories - Manufacturing generally is ta 24 x 7 continuous job which might involve working in shifts at factories which acts as a big deterent
3. The missing glamour of IT - Factory life doesn't have glamour of the IT grand offices and involves handling unskilled labour.
4. Outside city limits - Factories are geerally situated in industrial areas outside the cities whereas IT jobs could be in the cities as well.
5. Emergence of higher studies - Due to the emergence of higher education centres for management studies, people shall prefer to join some other sector.

The jump by Indians directly to services bypassing manufacturing initially also is a big factor behind rendering manufacturing sector unattractive as an employment sector for engineering youth.
An article from New York times describes a situation in US about lack of sufficient middle class technical manpower to execute big engineering and logistical projects.


I think a similar threat also exists in India if we do not concentrate on building and harnessing sufficient technical skills in this field.
The rising expectations, the growing impatience of the youth,  the want for easy money wihout toiling hard could also turn youth towards service sector like that in US.

Maybe it is time, we focus on developing technical skills necessary to implement and execute the manufacturing policy.

P.S:- In case any person reading have any idea, kindly let me know why is this blog viewed more in countries like Russia, Canada, Lativa and a host of countries where I know no body. I would like the blog to be read by people rather than BOTS.