The erstwhile Prime Minister of India had announced that India is committed to training 500 million youth by 2022. That declaration was made in 2012. The logic was that by 2022 the country will complete 75 years of independence and we will have a workforce that is trained ( may not be skilled) of 500 million. A rough calculation showed that in 10 years to achieve 500 million meant every year 50 million, every month 4.16 million and on a daily basis 138,000 needed to be trained. There were at least 18 ministries involved in this ambitious game plan. But as these ministries were managed by all-knowing bureaucrats a tug of war ensued. There were bitter turf wars as to who was responsible for the target achievement. Those who could make good PPT presentations managed to live for the day. In between NSDC was born. That created additional problems as it got caught between the Ministry of Finance and all the other ministries. It was almost as if a cricket match was being played with 18 umpires changing the rules of the game on a ball-to-ball basis. In all this confusion the industry which was the ultimate beneficiary of the ambitious plan kept itself aloof or at best tried to subsidize its training cost by partnering in various government schemes. Their CSR funds were effectively diverted to their sister concerns involved in training (business!). The youth who was the target of all the schemes became a professional trainee demanding free food, free pick up and free stay. Then the government realised that there was no way this target was going to be achieved. It then scaled down the target to 402 million. Then someone came up with the brilliant idea to bridge the gap in numbers by including those who were already working. And thus the RPL concept was born. Thus the circus goes on and on...

So the moot question is who is benefiting from this?

I suspect the chambers of commerce are surely benefiting from this. They go on merrily organizing annual skill conclaves. If you take out the proceedings of the last few years you will be amazed to see the same stuff being peddled out year after year. Initially, the foreign delegates were greatly excited as they saw a huge opportunity to cash on the skill boom. But soon they realized that this was a mirage and nothing concrete was coming out of it.

The big four auditing agencies surely benefited as they brought out white papers year after year.

The respective government officials and the ministers benefited as they were able to manage the headlines year after year.

The industry benefited by taking their cut out of government doles. Don't believe me? Just have a look at the STAR scheme. NSDC had to come up with a clarification that it is a SCHEME and not a SCAM!

Small-time and fly-by-night operators saw a huge opportunity to make a quick buck and they surely benefited. Serious players had to wound their shop as the second instalment from the government took its own time to materialize.

The real beneficiaries had to be the poor, underprivileged youth from Sukma, Dantewada, and Malkangiri who had nothing to support. He was caught between the left-wing extremists and the corrupt police force. While a lot was written about him nothing on the ground lifted him from the suffering. At best, he became statistics in a nice PPT.

Thus the circus goes on and on......