Workforce, Skills, and Education

One of the great uncertainties in India is the depth and flexibility of its workforce. The majority of India’s population is engaged in agrarian activities, be it as seasonal employees of a larger concern or as part of a family or village operation. In states with hot economies and burgeoning rosters of recent college and technical school graduates, such as Maharashtra, agricultural workers often migrate from farming areas into expanding metropolitan areas in search of unskilled-labor jobs. When the planting season rolls around, they simply migrate back.

A look at the demand for consumer goods shows that a true middle class is establishing itself in and around India’s hottest metropolitan areas. These people bring with them all the skills and education familiar to many Americans. Recent estimates put the size of this emerging middle class and the people dependent on it at up to 325 million, nearly 30 percent of the country’s entire population.