As India is poised to become a major economic force in the near future, education assumes much greater significance now. While our IITs and IIMs are making a mark for themselves by figuring in the top 100 institutes of the world, other educational institutions leave a lot to be desired. The economic growth averaging at 8 percent being fueled by ever-expanding family-owned businesses, IT, pharma and BPO sectors is likely to face difficult times ahead, due to the paucity of quality manpower. Unfortunately, in our country, only one-third of those who enter schools make it to secondary level and just 11 percent of the relevant population enrolls into colleges and universities. Governmental spending is a mere 0.37 percent of GDP on higher education, when higher education by itself is labeled as an economy differentiator. Teaching is the least preferred profession of the graduating youth here. Quality education is accessible to the privileged few only, while the rest are educated but unemployable due to lack of socially relevant skills. Sound human resources management is very important today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR V.R.K Prasad
Colonel VRK Prasad is an electronics engineer, having graduated from College of Military Engineering, Pune and Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, Mhow. Subsequently, he did his Masters in Business Administration and also in Environmental Sciences. He holds postgraduate qualifications in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations apart from an M Phil in labour studies. He had his early education in Nizam College, Hyderabad from where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Science and subsequently joined the Indian army. He has put in about 37 years of service so far, with about 27 years in the telecom branch of the Indian Army handling various communication oriented command assignments. On voluntary retirement from the army in late 1996 as a Colonel, he was with the industry for about three years heading marketing, customer support, training and operations areas. He is into academics for about seven years now and has published more than fifty papers and articles in professional journals, magazines and major newspapers. He has three derivative books to his credit on 'Managerial Effectiveness' (Vol I, & Vol II) and 'Great Leaders; Entrepreneurial and Turnaround' and a self authored book on 'Managerial Imperatives'. He is with Icfai family since March 2000 and was the Dean of Icfai Business School at Hyderabad till May '06 and presently is the Dean of Icfai School of HRD. He teaches HR related subjects to MBA and doctoral level students and conducts Executive and Management Development Programs, both in India and abroad. His areas of interests include behavioral sciences, training, managerial development and student management. He has a passion for guiding management students and young teachers. He is actively pursuing research in 'HRM area' with Osmania University, Hyderabad.
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