The window of opportunity called the demographic dividend is available to India only till 2040. Realising the demographic dividend brings to the fore the very serious challenge of skilling our labour force. But before devising the skill development strategy for these coming years, a task of great importance is to estimate the magnitude of the challenge and to assess the skill gap. This paper tries to estimate the skilling requirements, sector-wise, under different scenarios to arrive at a realistic and desirable target. No matter which scenario one ends up believing, the challenge of skill development - both in quantitative and qualitative terms - is enormous and requires a careful policy stance.
