“The skill gap in India has been a subject of much discussion over decades. At Channelplay we experience it first hand in a selection rate of lower than 20% for the 1,000+ openings we have in the retail sales space at any given time. Given the major success of UPI and the promising signs of ONDC, there seems to be a case to bring India Stack thinking to address the skill gap. An Open Network for Skills Development (ONSD), perhaps, seems to be the way to go. In the upcoming budget, we expect better utilisation of NSDC budget allocation through training support for a wide array of employers should be the objective. Rough estimates suggest that the revenue expenditure of NSDC is around INR 2,728.15 crore and led to facilitation of around 5,80,000 jobs. The ratio, INR 4,703/ Job, can work for training people for retail sales roles in our experience. Meanwhile the salaries in the segment are likely to be at the higher end of salaries that have hitherto been on offer. The India Stack approach to this area will help unlock a lot of entrepreneurial energy as it will reduce the entry barriers that exist to partnering with NSDC.”
