“India today produces millions of world class science, engineering, business and medical graduates, amounting to six million graduates a year. By 2020, 47 per cent of Indians will be between the age group of 15 and 59 years. The working age population of the United States and China is projected to shrink. So, India will have the largest population of workers and consumers,” the Vice-Chancellor said.Besides the contemporary employment opportunities, by 2020 a deficit of around 1.35 lakh technical teachers may be expected. Various universities in the world were now showing interest to enter into the education service sector of India, he said.
“You should realise the power of youth. Youth power of India has already been proved. The Information Technology and Information Technology-enabled services that put us on the global map has the average age of 26. You are living in a world without borders. For an elite technocrat there is no boundary whatsoever,” Mr. Boopathi said.
Touching upon the growth of the higher education system, he said new education developments such as medical tourism, telemedicine and rapid emergence of exclusive hospitals created a large number of new and particularly well paid jobs. Referring to school education, he said Tamil Nadu had emerged first in literacy pushing Kerala to the second place. He attributed this to the effective prevention of school dropouts.
He urged the students to realise that they were part of the privileged few who were fortunate enough to enjoy higher education. There was still 35 per cent of the Indian population that remained illiterate and only 15 per cent of students were able to reach high school. He exhorted them to ensure that their own individual advancement was combined with voluntary service to uplift society.