India to have a fourth of global workforce by 2022: Prez

India has the potential to account for one-fourth of the overall workforce across the world by 2022, President Pratibha Patil said today.
    
"Through a planned investment in skill development the country holds the potential to account for a fourth of the global workforce by 2022, when India will mark 75 years of its independence," Patil told the joint sitting of Parliament.
    
Emphasising that the UPA government has put in place coordinated action for skill development, she said: "A National Council for Skill Development to synergise public and private streams for skill development and a National Skill Development Corporation to promote private sector led action have also been set up".
    
Patil pointed out that setting up of IITs in early decades of the country's independence has "led to India's emergence as the global power in software development by the end of the century". She said the government has undertaken second wave of investment in higher education through creation of eight new IITs, seven IIMs, five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research and 15 Central Universities.
    
India is currently estimated to have a total workforce of 500 million, which is expected to grow by 20 million every year over the next 10 years.