I had the pleasure of participating in a panel that had come together to debate whether it was time for private education sector to be granted industry status. Education across its tertiary levels is a large sector as it is and was estimated to be worth $40 Bn in 2012, and as an industry it would be stimulated to grow larger through government support.

Well directed government intervention can inch the Indian workforce closer to the standards and volumes expected in Skill India. Skill India is another ambitious reform by the current administration to make India a self-reliant global power house, following visions such as Make in India, Digital India etc. The target is ambitious: 200 Mn people will have to be skilled by 2022, and begs the question whether the current policy apparatus of India can meet this target.

But the government already has mechanisms in place to achieve the goal of creating a highly skilled workforce. Is has been a big focus in every five year plan since the first, and the main regulatory body University Grants Commission ensures that it benefits increasingly large number of Indians each year. What role can private institutions play in this?

There are several ways in which private education institutes are complementing those public sector. In the public sector the nature of skills are largely technical, private sector have been the paragon of skilling people in the sectors of humanities. They are also relatively more flexible to offer more robust industry interfaces; both domestically and internationally. Traditionally private institutions have been quicker at identifying and delivering skills that are new. They are also on an average better equipped in terms of infrastructure, faculty, and other resources that attract and effectively skill top talent.

Could these institutions be more effective through government support? That support typically comes in the form of soft loans, tariff exemptions utilities, and tax waivers etc. The flipside is that any such reform is accompanied by a thorough regulatory framework and a regulating body attached to a ministry. This process usually has mixed levels of reception. The opinions echoed at this maybe a big cost to pay for the benefits that may not see fruition for several years.

This cost may only be substantiated for sectors that are in dire need of public sector stimulus. The sectors that directly impact our export basket (and those necessitate imports) could be given priority. Services have been our more recently export several private institutes continue to enrich the talent pool therein. Several best practices are being adopted from across the globe to ensure that the quality of talent is competitive domestically and abroad. India has proven our capability to deliver technically skilled workforce, and the one that competes globally on softer skills as well is the next frontier.