From Manpower Supplier to Skill Superpower: Why India Must Invest in Merit

India, as a country, is recognised as the manpower provider to the world. Yes, but as the provider of quality manpower, highly skilled manpower, the achievement to potential ratio is around 10 %. One of the major reasons is the high cost of higher education and inadequate support system which could act as a mitigating measure. In earlier times, a lot of talented manpower could be created because of liberal scholarship schemes by the central government or long term interest free loans by the state governments. Of course, the numbers would not have been much. But the concept holds true. To unleash the huge talent available in the country, we need to invest heavily in incentivising highly skilled education , especially for meritorious students of poor, lower middle class and middle class students, subsidising by 75%, 60%, 50%, especially for institutions who charge less than 7.5 lacs per annum as tuition fees for post graduate courses (These institutions have proved to keep costs under control). Balance amounts can be financed by banks. We will witness a rapid surge in the number of very good students and they will be ready for the world-especially Europe, the FTA effect and also Japan and Middle East. The inflow of remittances in foreign currency will offset the cost incurred by Govt. The long term impact in terms of morale and confidence all around will be huge. Also read what Directors / Deans of other B Schools had to say. What does the Union Budget 2026-2027 mean to Higher Education? ~ By Prof. (Dr.) V. Jayashree Director, VVISM Hyderabad Union Budget 2026: Nirmala Sitharaman to Engage With Students Post-Budget Presentation Union Budget 2026 - "Human capital at the centre of India’s growth story" - Dr. Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode Union Budget 2026 and Indian Education: Vision with Velocity, But Not Yet at Scale ~By Ravi Kumar Jain, Pro Vice Chancellor / Director, School of Management, IILM University, Gurugram. Budget 2026–27: Turning Education, Healthcare and Innovation into India’s Long-Term Growth Engine Budget 2026–27 : Dr. Vinita Sahay, Dir, IIM Bodh Gaya - Highlights Youth Focus, Digital Ecosystem, and Affordability in Education Expectations vs. Reality: What the Budget 2026 Means for Higher Education and the Common Citizen