Multi-faceted personality and Indian civilian award recipient T V Mohandas Pai impressed the audience on Tuesday with a detailed presentation on Indian economy at the Qatar India Business and Investment Conference, organised by the Indian Business and Professionals Council.
Asserting that India would be a $10tn economy by the turn of 2030, the Padma Shri Award recipient said the South Asian country's greatest asset is its remarkably youthful population compared to other growing economies.
Pai is the chairman of Manipal Global Education Services, which runs professional educational institutions in India, the UAE, Malaysia and Nepal, among other countries.
"By 2020, India would have at least 830mn people whose age would be less than 29 years," he said, while forecasting that in a couple of years from now, Bangalore would be the world's largest IT city, employing no less than 2mn professionals, overtaking the Silicon Valley, which currently has close to 1. 5mn workforce in its industry these days," said the ex-CFO of Indian IT giant Infosys.
While speaking on the necessity of generating more employment for educated youngsters within the country, Pai said nearly 930,000 engineers are graduated annually from across India and there is a greater need for attracting foreign direct investments, at the same time protecting the interests of local entrepreneurs.
India, he said, is the second major FDI destination and the pace of attracting investors has accelerated in recent years owing to the liberalised economic policies of the country.
The agricultural sector, though employing 45% of the country's population, is generating only 8% of the GDP currently, he said, while disclosing that 53% of the revenue is coming from the service sector.
He reminded the gathering that while India had to depend on foodgrains from the US until the late 60s, now the country has huge stocks of foodgrains to feed its people.
The industrial sector in India is contributing only 29% of the GDP, while 40% of China's population is employed in its industries, pointed out the speaker, while highlighting the necessity of generating more jobs for women in the industry. While in China, nearly 45% of the workforce is women, they constituted only a quarter of the workforce in India. "This needs to be changed substantially as greater numbers of competent women are coming out from our institutions these days".
Pai said studies have found that more than 400,000 Indian children are studying in institutions abroad and out of them 186,000 are in the US universities alone. Canada hosts 45,000, Australia 30,000, European Union countries 45,000 and the UK more than 20,000, he said.
Pai is the chairman of Manipal Global Education Services, which runs professional educational institutions in India, the UAE, Malaysia and Nepal, among other countries.
"By 2020, India would have at least 830mn people whose age would be less than 29 years," he said, while forecasting that in a couple of years from now, Bangalore would be the world's largest IT city, employing no less than 2mn professionals, overtaking the Silicon Valley, which currently has close to 1. 5mn workforce in its industry these days," said the ex-CFO of Indian IT giant Infosys.
While speaking on the necessity of generating more employment for educated youngsters within the country, Pai said nearly 930,000 engineers are graduated annually from across India and there is a greater need for attracting foreign direct investments, at the same time protecting the interests of local entrepreneurs.
India, he said, is the second major FDI destination and the pace of attracting investors has accelerated in recent years owing to the liberalised economic policies of the country.
The agricultural sector, though employing 45% of the country's population, is generating only 8% of the GDP currently, he said, while disclosing that 53% of the revenue is coming from the service sector.
He reminded the gathering that while India had to depend on foodgrains from the US until the late 60s, now the country has huge stocks of foodgrains to feed its people.
The industrial sector in India is contributing only 29% of the GDP, while 40% of China's population is employed in its industries, pointed out the speaker, while highlighting the necessity of generating more jobs for women in the industry. While in China, nearly 45% of the workforce is women, they constituted only a quarter of the workforce in India. "This needs to be changed substantially as greater numbers of competent women are coming out from our institutions these days".
Pai said studies have found that more than 400,000 Indian children are studying in institutions abroad and out of them 186,000 are in the US universities alone. Canada hosts 45,000, Australia 30,000, European Union countries 45,000 and the UK more than 20,000, he said.
