Even though the deadline to roll out 5G technology in India has been extended to sometime next year, the country will require as many as 22 million skilled workers by 2025 to successfully bring 5G-led technologies including Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and cloud computing home.
According to the Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC), India would roughly need about 22 million workers to skill or upskill themselves to match industry demand by 2025.
As per TSSC India is poised to become a global supplier for both electronics and human resources. TSSC is a non-profit organisation set up by the Cellular Operators Association of India, India Cellular and Electronics Association, and the National Skill Development Corporation, which seeks to ensure the availability of skilled manpower in the industry.
India's telecom sector currently employs nearly four million workers and has nearly 60% workforce employed with telecom service providers Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, and multinational technology vendors such as Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, Cisco, Ciena, Juniper, and ZTE.
With an expansion in the labour force in electronics equipment manufacturing through the recently introduced production-linked incentive scheme, the industry has also identified the lack of a skilled workforce, which has triggered a large demand for upskilling of current workers and skilling of fresh workers.
Last month, the Department of Telecommunications said that India is expected to receive an investment of about ₹3,300 crores from 31 domestic and multinational companies over a period of four years under the manufacturing scheme that may lead to the employment of 40,000 individuals in the telecom sector.
