Youth Skills for India 2047: Are Students Ready for the Digital Economy?

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20477453

Abstract

India plans to be one of the top digital economies by 2047 and the youth’s readiness will be a very important factor in making this dream come true. The present study tries to find out if the students of today have the necessary digital skills for future jobs and new industries. To gather primary data, a structured survey of students from various academic backgrounds was conducted to evaluate their basic and advanced digital skills, new technologies awareness, and digital workplaces adaptability confidence. The results indicate that students are very much familiar with basic digital tools like smartphones, internet platforms, and common productivity applications, however, their understanding of advanced skills like coding, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and automation is still very minimal. The majority of students show a firm intention to learn but have difficulties due to lack of direction, training, and awareness. The study finds out that even though the youth are digitally engaged, they are not fully digitally skilled for the requirements of India 2047. It is of paramount importance to India to train its youth in digital education, skill- based courses in universities should be introduced and awareness of new technologies should be promoted if the workforce is to be ready for the future.

Keywords: Digital skills, youth readiness, India 2047, digital economy, technology adoption, skill gaps, future workforce