India’s transition to a knowledge-based economy requires a new generation of educated and skilled people. Its competitive edge will be determined by its people’s ability to create, share, and use knowledge effectively. A knowledge economy requires India to develop workers—knowledge workers and knowledge technologists—who are flexible and analytical and can be the driving force for innovation and growth. Developing skilled workers enhances the efficiency and flexibility of the labor market; skills bottlenecks are reduced, skilled workers are more easily absorbed into the economy, and their job mobility is improved. In this light, an effort is made in this book to describe and analyze governmental skill development initiatives in India. The book focuses on the status of vocational
education programs, challenges of achieving quality and attaining competitive excellence in a globalized socioeconomic order, and the role of government and industry in achieving these avowed goals. The book also dwells on the need to revive traditional family-centric vocations pursued in the rural communities, especially those dying village-based vocations that provide livelihood options to a multitude of socially disadvantaged artisans, and integrate them into the fabric of skill development initiatives in place.