Home Minister Priyank Kharge, Minister for Medical Education Sharan Prakash Patil, and Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries M.B. Patil and others at the Bengaluru Skill Summit 2026 in Bengaluru on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN Warning that mounting global youth unrest could spread to India, the newly-appointed chairman of Karnataka’s Skill Vision Group, Subroto Bagchi, called for a radical transformation of the nation’s vocational education system at the Bengaluru Skill Summit, a three-day event that opened here on Wednesday.He argued that the staggering white-collar success of Bengaluru’s information technology, biotechnology, and aerospace sectors has left a non-urban world behind.To correct this imbalance, Mr.
Bagchi championed the execution of Karnataka’s inclusive skill policy, which aims to give school dropouts from the fifth, eighth, and tenth standards the same transformative economic roles once reserved for corporate professionals.The Mindtree co-founder and technocrat advocated that India must bridge the disparity between its premier engineering institutions and its grassroots technical schools. Evoking a metaphor shared by academic S.
Sadagopan, Mr. Bagchi explained that India features two critical eyes: the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs).While the IITs have marched confidently forward since the 1950s, the ITIs have walked backwards.
He emphasised that these two paths must operate stereophonically, cooperating in the exact same direction. Without a synchronised focus, the country risks producing visionaries who can design, but completely lacking a skilled workforce that can execute.To turn this vision into a living reality, Mr.
Bagchi outlined a comprehensive roadmap built on eight strategic pillars, anchored heavily in pervasive high school technology access, advanced manufacturing, services, healthcare, and the creative economy.Addressing a packed audience at the Bengaluru Skill Summit organised Department of Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, he placed particular emphasis on scaling agricultural skills and nano-entrepreneurship, noting that if there was no bread on the table, artificial intelligence could always wait.Highlighting recent societal unrest in France, Bangladesh, and Nepal, Mr. Bagchi insisted that the core driver was the genuine need for youth transparency and livelihood security.Mr.
Bagchi said, the Skill Vision Group would build the Bangalore Skill Summit into the global Davos of the skill sector within five years, drawing international CEOs to India to deliberate on human capital.He also reminded the audience that the historic foundations of Karnataka’s tech industry were laid because early pioneers saw skill development as an absolute necessity for institution-building, rather than an optional luxury. He urged leaders to ground their upcoming structural programmes in quality, systems driven by deep empathy, and a total commitment to rural community inclusion.
Published - November 04, 2026 01:19 am IST