Reskilling: The Lead Enabler

As India invests in emergent technologies and big-ticket projects such as Smart Cities, PLI scheme and NDCP lead to a rise in demand for new skill-based jobs, a whole generation of frontline workforce needs to be skilled, reskilled or upskilled to match demand

Arvind Bali , CEO, Telecom Sector Skill Council

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting he old, but on building the new” — Socrates

I feel this statement holds true now more than ever. Telecom has for long been an enabler for both business and social infrastructure. The telecom sector was severely affected during the pandemic last year. But unlike other sectors, it was still enabling 30-35 per cent of the GDP during the social distancing period, other than the present 6 per cent direct contribution to the GDP.

Amidst the heavy commotion surrounding the current scenario, telecom is facing multiple issues including but not limited to liquidity, Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues, rationalisation of the regulatory levies, 5G spectrum pricing, Right of Way (RoW) rules, cell tower radiation concerns, equipment import restrictions and manpower migration.

Wearing multiple hats is like second nature for this sector and its workers. One broadband connection might be supporting multiple forms of business necessary to keep our economy running. Now, under a new lens, people have started taking both their physical and mental health more seriously. Downtime, work from home and remote work have started becoming a norm in many organizations. This will only lead to an increase in distributed data usage. Where originally, business centres would experience high data volume during working hours, now we will start seeing a median increase in overall data usage.