Employment Policies for the Absorption of Technical Manpower: The Indian Experience

Abstract

Indian experience in the field of manpower planning has a long history. As far back as 1887 the Indian National Congress explicitly stated in its resolution that ‘having regard to the poverty of the people, it is desirable that the Government be moved to elaborate a system of technical education suitable to the condition of the country and to employ more extensively than at present the skills and talents of the people of the country’. Systematic manpower planning efforts were, however, initiated only after the Second World War as part of the post-war reconstruction plan. Of particular significance to technical education were the Scientific Manpower Committee (1947), Engineering Personnel Committee (1956), Committee for Post-graduate Engineering Education and Research (1961) and the Apprenticeship Act (1961 and as amended in 1972). In addition, in 1945 the All-India Council for Technical Education was created as part of the Ministry of Education to review continuously the progress in technical education and initiate appropriate measures to correct any serious imbalances in supply and demand for technical manpower as and when they arise.

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not of the Institute to which the authors belong. They gratefully acknowledge the help received from Mrs Sulochana Kulkarni.