The UGC has not cared to evenupdate their obsolete 2003 guidelines for private universities which are reallythe new engines of growth for skilling and 'Make in India'. For example, as ofnow according to the UGC, a private university cannot partner with a technicalor sectoral institution outside the jurisdiction of the state to offer studentsbetter employability. Is it really a tenable guideline as universities have topartner with sectoral institutions which are located in respective geographicalclusters wherever they are to increase employability in leather or apparel orjewellery for their rural/mofussil students?

Certainly, the higher andvocational (skill) education need to be given lot more attention to come outwith more realistic guidelines by statutory bodies who seem to be in deepslumber in their comfort zones. They need to reinvent themselves in line withthe 'Skilling India' motto of our country in the completely changed context.Context is everything for decisions and contemporary law-making. The entirehigher education and vocational education is crying for reforms. I do hope thegovernment pays attention. There is not enough effort to converge the'mainstream' with 'vocational system' through contemporary regulations exceptpaying lip service, even now.

Foreign universitiesalso need to come into India at some point, but before that the widespreadusage of 'twinning' programmes, meaningful academic collaborations throughdynamic arrangements, need to be absorbed into the system in a more conducivelegal and statutory environment by contemporary regulations. The 'validity ofdegrees', 'equivalence of credits' and course work/research work integration,etc, need to be worked out for creating a more robust system. Just like FDI inthe retail sector, FDI through foreign universities need to have a phased entryso that the Indian education system suddenly is not destabilised with corelimited faculty resources pulled out by better salaries or higher fees puttingupward pressure on fee structure.

It is also imperative that ourindigenous institutions' quality of education programmes and research arebrought up to a sufficient level to allow a level-playing field. Meanwhile, theeducational technology of overseas universities need to be certainly absorbedthrough quality assurance arrangements as IAM has done with WolverhamptonUniversity and NID, Ahmadabad (where I was director from 2000 to 2009) earlierwith BIAD in UK.

Our country needs 'job providers'instead of 'only job seekers'. There is a priority need for promotingentrepreneurship through incubation. I am glad that the Prime Minister has setup a Ministry for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, which is a highlylaudable step.

Aten-fold path in this direction

The Apparel Training & DesignCentre (ATDC) plans to upgrade all its systems across the country, as in thelast five years the Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS) of the Ministryof Textiles and the SMART project of ATDC have created a solid platform and arenow launching afresh the long-term programmes of ATDC Vocational Institute(AVI), under the Directorate General of Training, Ministry of Skill Developmentand Entrepreneurship. Thus, at one end we will be providing technically soundshop floor workforce and on the other, shaping technologically soundsupervisors and junior managerial cadre.

Creation of an ecosystem is ofutmost importance in 'Aspirational India'. The new B.Voc programmes will aimeven higher calibre junior managerial and supervisory personnel, thus creatinga step ladder ecosystem for vocational training dedicated to the apparelsector. B.Voc plans to bring out 3,000 candidates through ATDC's select 30centres by 2017. AVI will have the capacity to train 7,500-10,000 individualsper annum through 65 centres. The ATDC-SMART centres (about 125+) will continueto train 40,000 candidates per annum for next two years. All facilities andfaculty resources would be upgraded by providing digital content. In addition,ATDC plans to move towards an ISO-9001 certified organisation by 2017. So, (1)scale with quality (2) digitalisation/ digital support for trainers andtrainees (3) developing an ecosystem through step-ladder vocational trainingapproach for Aspirational India will be the top three priorities.

India's rapidly growingeconomy is getting integrated into the global economy; new opportunities emergeevery day. However, the students' skills and competencies should match withopportunities. You have to keep the worm warm to catch the fish in cold climesas the story says. Earlier, companies were looking towards having people with80 per cent knowledge and 20 per cent skills. Now, companies look to have 80per cent skills and 20 per cent knowledge in the candidates they seek out.Students have to make considerable attitudinal change and actually demonstratethe skills, whether in information technology or in fashion. So the next foldsare matching skills and competencies for employability by the youth being thefourth point, and matching opportunities with talent and focusing ondemonstrable skills being the fifth and sixth in the to-do list. The ability toaccept change as the new normal and embracing new technologies is the seventh,so to say.

The education system iscontinuously evolving, but the disproportionate emphasis on higher education atthe cost of vocational (skill) education from 1947 to 2009 has cost in terms ofnumerous skills being lost and gaining only diminishing returns for even thehigher education, since our higher education institutes and universities do notshow up in global lists where Chinese universities dominate from Asia.Therefore, in India there has been heavy dependence on white collar jobs. Theskill revolution which we want to usher in should have started long ago - weare at least 20 years late. As soon as economic liberalisation began in 1991,we should have at least started the journey, and 2009 is a little too late tobenefit from demographic dividends. The integration of higher and vocationaleducation should be done keeping in mind that we are dealing with aspirationalyouth in India who are only victims of accidence of birth, and the skilleducation system should provide ample opportunities for individual growth toresult in societal well being, which will be the eighth point.

The community college conceptwhich was introduced by IGNOU in 2009 was laudable. Unfortunately, mindlessaction by the then Vice-Chancellor destroyed the well intentioned revolutionaryapproach which could have put IGNOU on a higher plane and given our youth agood deal. We need to go back to the community college system. The ATDC hadover 50 community colleges at that point. The spirit of an institution likeATDC need to be based on the community college concept as it links education toholistic local and individual and societal development through training andemployment seamlessly.

"India requires literacy, numeracy,IT-eracy" as we move towards a Skilled India and Digital India. We requirestrong primary education and higher enrolment ratio for education inuniversities as the country moves towards a knowledge and innovation-drivenservice economy. However, only spread of manufacturing can upgrade the ruraleconomy. Therefore, it is important that India moves forward in impartingskills as in Korea or Germany instead of the current level of 2-3 per centformally trained workforce. Literacy with domain, life and soft skills will bethe new mantra for success as the ninth element. The tenth point will be acommunity or cluster-driven approach to higher secondary/skill/UG education, tomake India succeed in the global market place.

Thehierarchy of design in a corporate structure

The words 'design' and 'fashion'are magnetic, and they both bring magic to the products or services which theychoose to touch or transform. However, the power of design and fashion has notbeen used sufficiently in our country which is high on creativity. I hadpioneered and formulated the National Design Policy which was approved by thegovernment of India in 2007. However, follow-up action to realise the actionplan, including the India Design Council, has not only been tardy but been withoutpassion and drive too. We had coined the slogans 'Design enabled India' and'Designed in India, Made for the World'. Those have not been carried forwardeither by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion or by theinstitutes.

I had advocated in my book of 1994that instead of becoming a factory to the world like China, India should becomea "creative manufacturer" or "creative supplier of fashion orapparel" to the world. Nobody paid enough attention. The core of a successfulbrand is design. However, innovation has encroached a lot from the territory ofdesign, being linked to technology and therefore more acceptable to the higherechelons of management. Design is associated with skills and therefore clubbedwith lower functional categories. There is a need to change this hierarchy inthe corporate structure. The Chief Designer or Chief Emotion (Design) Officer(CEO/CDO) are equally important as CEO or COO. As I had evangelised in my book'Indian Design Edge' (Roli Books, 2008), India needs to make "Designed inIndia, Made for the World" a priority along with the 'Make in India'initiative of the Prime Minister to get a well-deserved place for India in theglobal arena.

Of designers and brands

Administrators in the Ministry ofTextiles had a surprisingly wonderful idea in 1985-86 to visit the FashionInstitute of Technology (FIT), New York, and to emulate the institute bysetting up a fashion school in India in 1986-87. The idea was really ahead ofits times. FIT which is a part of New York State University even now has onlyone campus in one location. Of course, it has set up collaborative ventures inItaly and also initiated the NIFT in New Delhi. The idea was to create worldclass designers from a specialised high quality campus with high qualityfaculty members to create Indian fashion brands and designers for the world.

As it happens only in India, theidea was diluted by successive governments from 1994 for the setting up ofseveral NIFTs in the country. Every state wanted one NIFT as it is a feather intheir cap, irrespective of whether the state understood the concept or not, orwhether the right environment existed there or not.

The institutes have been runmostly by bureaucrats, ensuring that the founding faculty members of NIFT aremade to feel uncomfortable and that they leave the Institute, which they did.In a way, the setting up of 17 NIFTs has democratised fashion but as far ascreating world class designers is concerned, the effort has fallen way belowexpectations. Moreover, the Indian domestic apparel industry and the exportsindustry were not often willing to bet on creativity and design, and chose tofocus on manufacturing technology and costs to match customer expectations.

Building a brand is expensive inthe short run though it brings in enormous revenue and benefits in the longrun. The benefits are in fact disproportionate in the long run. Indian apparelexporters know manufacturing very well, but never understood branding. However,the domestic industry understands branding to some extent, but has never usedworld class manufacturing for building domestic brands or spent enough onadvertising and promotion to build brand while ensuring consistency in qualityand delivery on a sustained basis.

When smaller countries createBenetton, Zara, Mango, Uniqlo, etc, India is a long way behind from creation ofpopular fashion brands known around the world. There has also not been anyfashion incubator in the country for fashion designers. I had set up a NationalDesign Business Incubator in NID which was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in2005 when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. The Fashion Design Council ofIndia (FDCI) and Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) are doing good work for theirsponsors like Lakme, Wills or Amazon.

The government has notappreciated enough for the value of creativity, innovation and design towardsdeveloping a long-term strategy and therefore there is very little action onthe ground. It will take many more years before we see a star brand from designersor otherwise. If India could take world by storm through International Yoga Dayon June 21, 2015, the day is not far when an Indian fashion brand will alsotake the world by storm, if imagination is backed by resources and ifmediocrity does not pull down institutions like NIFT and NID.