Tamil Nadu is doing extremely well. But somewhere in the last ten years, we have slipped. The slippage is evident in IT; the best jobs in IT are moving to Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune and increasingly to Indore. There are two reasons for this. One, it is very difficult to hire a CEO from a different state to come and work here. The IT skill levels here are not really matching the requirements of the industry.
Skill gap in IT
A recent NASSCOM study says there will be 2.4 – 2.5 million skill gap of top level talent in IT before 2024; of this nearly 50,000 – 60,000 vacancies will arise in Tamil Nadu. Compared to last year we have lost high paying jobs in the state. There is a very deep demand to improve the skill levels of the younger generation to meet the requirements of the growing IT industry. This is not just true for IT alone. This also applies to skill levels in manufacturing. We need higher skilled employment for higher skilled technological and automated manufacture. At the same time we need mass employment opportunities.
The second reason is the perception that Chennai is not cosmopolitan. It is still considered a conservative city with no life for youngsters. Coimbatore is considered a happening place. Hosur is becoming a happening place because of its proximity to Bengaluru.
Dispersed development…
So there is a need to look beyond Chennai and we have a great advantage here. 55 per cent of the state is urbanised and it will be 70 per cent in the next five years. We have 14 cities which are covered by National Highways. Educational institutions are spread out. There are thus places to grow. We are putting to the government the thought on dispersing growth. I am happy to see that it is coming out.
Today in any small town, one can see a furniture shop. Everyone is buying these because of urbanisation. Every month, about 28,000 tonnes of timber comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, goes all the way upto Gujarat, gets converted into furniture and shipped back. So why can’t we bring that Myanmar wood down to our port and do it here? This is how Thoothukudi Furniture Park came up. To whom the land be allotted – should it be given to giant player like Ikea or to our own MSME units? This kind of thought process is going on.
Skills not put to use…
With Covid we felt that children have lost out on education. So the thought we put was, why don’t you bridge that gap through some kind of home education. The TN Chief Minister named it as “Illam Thedi Kalvi”. In this scheme, selected volunteers from each locality would re-teach children of classes 0-4, so that when they go back to school they are much more aware of the subjects. Close to 1.5 lakh volunteers have been selected out of 5 lakh applications. The minimum
eligibility criterion was a class 12 pass; but most of the applications received were from graduates or higher qualified. These were graduates in villages who have time to spare for these voluntary activities for a modest pay. This shows that much of skill and capability is not being used and missed out in increasing state’s GDP.
Take job to people…
Post-Covid there is a mental change and people are reluctant to leave their known surrounding. If you offer a job 40-50 miles away, they are not interested. This is true of Tamil Nadu today and policy-makers must understand this and take the job to them rather than bring them to the job.
Government should look at IT skilling in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where, after 6-8 months of training in cutting edge IT skills, the state will have a huge cohort ready for employment.
We must do the best…
Tamil Nadu will grow. Even if all of us go to sleep, there is an inherent growth momentum. 9–10 per cent real GDP growth for next 8-10 years is given. But at the same time, other states are doing things differently and they will grow faster. Today if I am to look at one state that will grow very fast in the next 3-4 years, it will be UP. Things are starting to happen there for many reasons but they are translating the economy of the state. We must keep an eye on what UP, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Assam do because they are doing unusual things that accelerate growth. Let us see what we can to do better and we must do the best.
