Antecedents, consequences and strategic responses to graduate work-readiness: Challenges in India

India is in a position to reap its prospective demographic dividends by 2020 by becoming one of the world’s youngest countries with a median age of 27.3 and an estimated 28 percent contribution to the world’s workforce (Ernst and Young 2014a; UN Habitat 2013). During this period, the prediction is that the labour force in the developed world will face a decline in its working age population by 4 percent (Bloom and McKenna 2015). Conversely, in India the workforce is set to increase by an estimated 32 percent, based on its lowest dependency ratio (i.e., number of children or elderly dependent on wage earners) (India Skills Report 2014). This is likely to catapult India and its workforce to the centre stage of the global labour market, due in part to the “ageing” challenge faced by the majority of developed nations (India Skills Report 2014). These favourable demographics show that the major portion of India’s population will be active in the working age group of 15 to 50 years, indicating that by 2020 India will have a surplus in its active working population of approximately 47 million people (Bhattacharya et al. 2010). This presents a good opportunity for India to increase productivity in order to meet its needs and at the same time to contribute to the needs of the workforce globally, particularly in the Asian region. With the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in late 2015, and the impending increase in talent mobility across Asia, it is imperative for India to develop ‘work-ready’ graduates who can harness their skills to transcend the region with ease (Chia 2013).