Arvind Virmani, Member, NITI Aayog, has stressed the importance of improving the quality of education and harnessing digital technologies to improve educational outcomes, given the changes happening globally and the resultant opportunities for India.
Dr. Virmani was delivering the P.K. Gopalakrishnan memorial lecture on ‘India@2047: Developed Country’ at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS).
India would become an upper middle-income country at the latest by 2035 and a high-income country by 2050. This would enable the country to provide equal opportunities to women, SC/ST categories and rural population, according to him.
Declining working age population in developed countries and the increasing share of this group in Indian population offered opportunities for the country, Dr. Virmani said, according to a statement. This could shift a large part of skilled and unskilled labour-intensive production to India. Increasing digitalisation and demographic transition in developed countries would result in large-scale outsourcing of business, health, education and government services to India.
Former Union Cabinet Secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar presided. CDS Director C. Veeramani also spoke.
