Native Intelligence to Global Talent Mapping Can Transform the Rural India

Native Intelligence to Global Talent Mapping Can Transform the Rural India

             

All the great contributors of India in Science, Engineering, Technology, Mathematics, History, Geography and many more fields have been association with some rural parts of India. There are uncounted success stories from all across the country who hailed from rural areas or villages and they excelled in their respective fields.  Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (world renowned scientist and mentor) Ramanujan (world renowned great mathematician) are among a number of great personalities who could overcome all odds and hardships and shown the paths to millions all across the world.  The reputed organizations in India such as DRDO, ISRO and Defense; were led by several people who hailed from villages and showcased their native talents and became ideal for thousands. Though 25 to 30 years ago, the competition was not cut-throat but still those who could exemplify the success stories in various fields could demonstrate their native intelligence and talent. The native talent was showcased and there has been always some inspiration behind the success story, be it from the teacher or parents or some other mentors; who could motivate the young minds in exhibiting the local talents and provided some appropriate platforms. The situation has changed significantly now; and the competitions have been mammoth in last 2 decades. In administrative services; IT sectors another government responsibility; the youth form urban areas are predominating due to the exposure of the suitable knowledge and opportunities. This is mainly due to the fact that skill development opportunities; awareness and motivation factors are abundant in urban cities or towns. However, the rural youth still has potential in performing great in various service, research and defense sectors.

 Native talent in this article does not actually mean the talents only from the rural areas but the intelligence from local communities. The talents are unlimited everywhere and the problem only lies in manifesting the talents. The newspapers and social media report a number of wonderful activities, projects, products from various parts of India and many of them do not get appropriate platform or awareness and thus they do not get highlighted in national or global arena. Let us understand the concept of native intelligence; global skillset and required mapping that can map local talent into global skillset which can help the locals contributing in wider economy and knowledge economy as well.

§    Native Intelligence: Swami Vivekananda always emphasized on “Each soul is potentially divine and the goal is to manifest the divinity”.  This quote is having broad significance in the sense that the potential or capability is unlimited in everyone but the potential can be only manifested when the individual is subjected through proper training and exposed to awareness and motivation. In recent time, we have seen the talents of farmers, locals, uneducated, laborers, mechanics, coming out with several innovative products related to sanitizer machines, oxygen supplies etc. No one would deny that native talent is huge everywhere but the important thing is to identify the talents and giving them opportunities and putting them into suitable training and skill development natives so that the talent can contribute to greater cause for the nation for wider communication and broader purpose. Every part of the country has a number of educational institutes but very few actually practice skill-based education pragmatically in true sense. The emphasis to identify the hidden talents; their potential to solve real time problems and many more, lacks in education pedagogy and practices in many institutes, and rather focus on helping the students become graduates with good grades and percentage. Why can’t a farmer or a mechanic given opportunity to be part of some research and academic activities in a team of students so that the talent can get utilized more effectively with the help of technology and knowledge of students.

§     Global Skillset: If someone has talents to showcase and can be of great importance in solving some small to large problems existing in society related to farming, agriculture, science, economy etc., then the appropriate skillset becomes pertinent so that one can practice the talent with wider and global visibility. In the age of ICT tools, social media, 4G/5G technologies, the development of skillset become easier than the past. However, it requires interest, enthusiasm and passion in the young minds who are full of talents but even more important factor is a person or an organization who can help the guys in identifying themselves and their caliber. Language does not act as bar and there are numerous ICT tools which can empower the talented person to demonstrate the intelligence at bigger platform. The Corona time has taught a great lesson for survival with sustenance employing innovative tools of learning.  Of course, presentation and communication skill play important role for youth when it comes to showcase the intelligence at wider and national arena. So, local talent can create a significant impact when the talent gets assistance of necessary skillset.

§     Mapping and Transforming Rural India and Knowledge Economy: Now, the mapping between local intelligence and global skillset is next essential step in utilizing the local talents and potentials and giving them opportunities to be part of inclusive development, growth and learning society. The mapping requires a number of factors such as teachers, parents, educational institutes, village panchayat heads, farmers, and many more who can help the young minds in setting some big goals with their existing talent by using some appropriate knowledge set. The factors highlighted here also need exposure to the global needs and opportunities which further require help of those who have already been successful from the respective local communities, whose assistance can be sought in creating awareness among the teachers and parents; and igniting young minds that they can do great things with whatever they are capable of. This mapping not only helps the rural economy to grow and transform but also helps the local talent pool becoming part of knowledge economy. The world will be ruled for long time by great knowledge economies which requires the suitable place and recognition of local talents and assistance to them in practicing the talents using global skillset.

§     India as “Vishwa Guru” (Global Teacher): There are areas of specialization where India plays a significant role, rather a role of “Vishwa Guru” (Universal Teacher) such as Spirituality, Secularism, Yoga, Ayurveda etc. IT sector all across the world recognizes the great contributions of Indian youth where lead positions in many topmost IT players are held by Indian techies. However, the expansion of the knowledge and innovation, especially research and development is much needed where India can actually become global leader. This is possible by identifying the local talents, creating awareness among them and giving them opportunities to rise and practice.  Transformation from local to global and being vocal to local would help India especially rural India see significant changes in terms of quality of life for all.  When the quality of life improves then every objective of sustainable development goals is achieved because quality of life is the ultimate aim of all innovations and research activities; and this can be achieved by involving the locals and their talents as a part of inclusive and sustainable growth. 

(The author can be reached for feedback at: drgrsinha@ieee.org)