Publication: Scientific and Technical Manpower Development in India
Loading...
Published
2000-08-30
ISSN
Date
2013-08-09
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The study aims at understanding critical issues in scientific, and technical (S&T) manpower development, and at identifying strategies to reform the system, both at the systemic, and institutional levels. While India has one of the world's largest stock of scientists, engineers, and technicians, it has not derived full economic benefits from this skill base, namely due to the mismatch/inadequacy of education, and training, and, to the limited employment capacity of the labor market. The main problems facing the higher S&T education system are reviewed, focusing on the over-centralization of statutory bodies, vs. lack of autonomy, and accountability by institutions; resource constraint and wastage; program structures, and content, irrelevant to changing market needs, and the increased economic liberalization in India; difficulties in retention of S&T faculty members, largely due non-competitive pay; and, regional disparity in the availability of educational facilities. The study presents a strategy for reforms in S&T education, which include decentralization of authority to empower individual institutions, towards an accountable management system. This would require mobilization of additional financial resources, and the establishment of effective quality assurance mechanisms to ensure excellence, for the optimal utilization of intellectual, and knowledge resources.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2000. Scientific and Technical Manpower Development in India. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14983 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Republic of Sierra Leone : Higher and Tertiary Education Sector Policy Note(Washington, DC, 2013-07-15)Chapter one provides background and context for these policy notes. It includes information on the history of Higher and Tertiary Education (HTEs), learning structures, the economy, relevant legal frameworks, and the general education sector. Chapter two deals with quality assurance: the structures of administration, legal framework, monitoring Commissions, internal and external quality assurance, policies, accreditation and participants. Chapter three highlights issues of academic Relevance to economic, social and national development. It reviews the Government of Sierra Leone (GOSL) priorities, the labor market, skills and competencies and employment status and opportunities for Higher and Tertiary Education Institution, or HTI graduates. The chapter further explores the supply of programs and courses while identifying gaps in offerings. Recommendations are provided. Chapter Four provides insight into the Cost and Financing of HTIs. The report highlights the financing of institutions, public financing, subventions, scholarships and projected demand for HTE and associated costs. Policy recommendations are provided in each chapter, and summarized here.Publication Internationalization of Higher Education in MENA : Policy Issues Associated with Skills Formation and Mobility(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-01)This policy issues note is focused on internationalization of higher education and the linkages and implications that internationalization has for skills mobility. Internationalization is one of the most important developments that globalization has brought to higher education worldwide. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, it has turned into quite a complex undertaking. The Arab Spring has made it clear that young people in MENA are asking for more and better opportunities: to study and work; to move about the world; and to learn and to create new knowledge and enterprises. Higher education, migration, and labor mobility are key policy areas as MENA nations address the need for a strong skills base to underpin the economic and social development of the regions disparate economies. All three policy areas share an interest in the development, recognition, and application of educational qualifications, in the quality of education and training, and in the ability of people to acquire, provide, and use education for their own well-being and for their nation's benefit. This note is intended to be the base document for a policy dialogue integrating the three issues associated with the development of human capital: higher education, migration, and labor mobility. This note seeks to introduce a systematic policy discussion about the internationalization of higher education to help MENA countries improve the quality and relevance of their higher education systems, open opportunities for better skills development, and improve high-skilled labor migration. There are important interactions among the formation of skills and competencies, the acquisition of credentials and qualifications, and where and how those skills are applied. These include the quality of education, the ease with which credentials are recognized in different countries, the role of international partners, and the incentives to study and work in the region and elsewhere. This note will explore how a regional approach to accreditation and recognition of qualifications could bring benefits and understanding of the complex interactions among student mobility, domestic higher education, and the economic and social development priorities of MENA countries. It will also provide evidence on the importance of setting goals for intra-regional student mobility and for student and faculty flows into the region through accreditation, student and faculty exchange, hiring incentives, and research infrastructure including competitive research grants. Finally, the note will demonstrate the need for a clear policy on the 'export of educational services.'Publication Internationalizing Sub-Saharan Africa’s Education and Health Services(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015)This paper summarizes the nature and determinants of trade in education and health services in a selected group of countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The paper presents results from new, innovative data collection methods, such as crowdsourcing, to shed some light on the magnitude, determinants, and restrictions on intra-African trade in education and health services. Assessments of trade and regulatory barriers, based on results from regulatory surveys conducted in selected East African countries, and case studies of success stories and less favorable experiences are then used to develop policy recommendations for using trade and regional integration more strategically to improve outcomes in education and health. The analysis shows that to turn these sectors around, policy action is required in the areas of education, domestic regulation, trade policy, labor mobility, and information and communications technologies at the national and international levels. To retain some of the scarce health workers in the region and enhance the region’s competitiveness in providing education and health services, African countries should allow for freer mobility of teachers and health care professionals.Publication Egypt : Teachers(Washington, DC, 2010-01)In 2008 (the most recent data available), Egypt spent 3.8 percent of Gross Domestic Product, or GDP on public education; in 2003 this figure was recorded as 4.9 percent. In 2008, Egypt spent 11.9 percent of total public spending on education; in 2003, this figure was recorded as 16.2 percent. However, over recent years, Egypt has achieved important improvements in access to primary education. The primary enrollment rate reached 94 percent (2007) from 86 percent at the beginning of the decade. Egypt's secondary enrollment rate (71 percent in 2002) compares favorably to other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region and to other low-middle income countries. Despite these improvements, learning outcomes remain a source of concern. Egyptian students mean scores in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study Mathematics (TIMSS) declined between 2003 and 2007, from 406 to 391 points. Thus, improving the quality of education is a priority for the country.Publication Intelligence, Personality, and Creativity : Unleashing the Power of Intelligence and Personality Traits to Build a Creative and Innovative Economy(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-11-04)Cognitive ability, as measured by IQ and background factors such as socioeconomic status and demographics have historically been seen as the principal determinants of a student s academic success. However, a growing body of research from psychology, education, behavioral economics and neuroscience is showing that personality traits also predict academic and work performance. This change in paradigm suggests that education systems face a more complex challenge than traditionally recognized: to work not only with the different types of intelligence possessed by students but also with their different personality traits in order to produce academic success measured by cognitive and non-cognitive skills. This paper reviews the research findings from the different literatures (psychology, education, behavioral economics, and neuroscience) that relate to these questions. Several good reviews summarize the findings on aspects of these questions, but rarely address all of the questions above. In particular, those reviews do not shed light on how education can improve both cognitive and non-cognitive skills and how such skills promote creativity and labor market outcomes. The scientific literatures on human intelligence and personality are large, but our focus is on the subset of research findings that relate intelligence and personality to academic performance. Likewise, the literature on creativity, innovation, and productivity is extensive, but our focus will be on the research findings that relate academic performance to creativity and, ultimately, to productivity in the workplace.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Solow in Transition : Macro and Micro Determinants of Savings in Armenia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-07)This paper analyzes and reconciles macro and micro evidence on savings and factors that affect savings, as well as possible policy implications. At the aggregate level, the main question is how savings are affected by growth and macroeconomic policies and variables (fiscal policy, exchange rate, for example) and the breadth of financial markets. Some of these macro determinants can be reconciled with microeconomic evidence of the savings behavior of households. Using macroeconomic quarterly data and household survey data, the analysis explores the determinants of the savings rate at the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels, using the typical econometric models used in the literature (long-term co-integration relation and short-term error correction model for the macro determinants; linear multivariate models for the micro determinants). The long-term relationship indicates that a 10-percent increase in gross domestic product per capita would add 3.7 percentage points to the savings rate in the long run. The short-term relationship depicts a strong catch-up process to the long-run equilibrium, with quarterly changes in gross domestic product per capita and openness strongly correlated with quarterly changes in the savings rate. The characteristics of households that represent the volatility of expected income, such as education and access to borrowing or remittances, significantly impact saving rates. The macroeconomic and microeconomic analyses of the determinants of saving rates in Armenia point to three policy areas: the macroeconomic environment, the financial sector, and the role of remittances.Publication Development Research in Practice(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-06-16)Development Research in Practice leads the reader through a complete empirical research project, providing links to continuously updated resources on the DIME Wiki as well as illustrative examples from the Demand for Safe Spaces study. The handbook is intended to train users of development data how to handle data effectively, efficiently, and ethically.Publication When We're Sixty-Four(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020-10-02)Latin American countries are in the midst of a demographic transition and, as a consequence, a population-aging process. Over the next few decades, the number of children will decline relative to the number of older adults. Population aging is the result of a slow but sustained reduction in mortality rates, given increases in life expectancy and fertility. These trends reflect welcome long-term improvements in welfare and in economic and social development. But this process also entails policy challenges: many public institutions—including education, health, and pension systems and labor market regulations—are designed for a different demographic context and will need to be adapted. When We’re Sixty-Four discusses public policies aimed at overcoming the two main challenges facing Latin American countries concerning the changing demographics. On one hand, older populations demand more fiscal resources for social services, such as health, long-term care, and pensions. On the other, population aging produces shifts in the proportion of the population that is working age, which may affect long-term economic growth. Aging societies risk losing dynamism, being exposed to higher dependency rates, and experiencing lower savings rates. Nonetheless, in the interim, Latin American countries have a demographic opportunity: a temporary decline in dependency rates creates a period in which the share of the working-age population, with its associated saving capacity, is at its highest levels. This constitutes a great opportunity in the short term because the higher savings may result in increases in capital endowment per worker and productivity. For that to happen, it is necessary to generate institutional, financial, and fiscal conditions that promote larger savings and investment, accelerating per capita economic growth in a sustainable way.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.