India one of the most prepared job markets: QS World Future Skills Index

According to the inaugural QS World Future Skills Index, India has emerged as one of the world’s most prepared job markets for ‘future in-demand’ skills, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI), digital technology, and green industries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “This is heartening to see! Over the last decade, our Government has worked on strengthening our youth by equipping them with skills that enable them to become self-reliant and create wealth. We have also leveraged the power of technology to make India a hub for innovation and enterprise. The insights from the QS World Future Skills Index are valuable as we move further on this journey towards prosperity and youth empowerment.”

The UK-based higher education firm QS evaluates countries’ readiness to meet evolving global job market demands.

Ranked 25th, India is recognised as a ‘future skills contender’. The country excelled in the ‘future of work’ metric, achieving the second-highest global score of 99.1, just behind the United States.

This index evaluated over 190 countries, over 280 million job postings, over 5,000 universities, 5 million employer skill demands reviewed and 17.5 million research papers.

QS World Future Skills Index classifies economies into four categories based on their overall performance – future skills aspiring, practitioner, contender, and pioneer. India is positioned in the contender category.

“The Indian economy is the fifth largest in the world and was the fastest growing G20 economy in 2024. Industries driving this growth include FMCG, infrastructure, healthcare, IT and renewables. The economic innovation being driven globally through AI, digital and green is very evident in India wherein it scores second in the world for ‘future of work’, signalling that Indian employers today are demanding the innovative skills of tomorrow,” the report said.

The key factors that contributed to India’s performance include a resilient investment ecosystem driving innovation, significant readiness to adopt AI in the workforce, and being one of the nations most prepared to recruit into digital roles.

However, the index underscored several challenges in India’s education and employment landscape, such as a mismatch between academic curricula and industry demands in AI, green, and digital skills; limited access to tertiary education for a young and growing population; a lack of focus on sustainability in education and industry readiness; and low investment in research and development, at just 0.6 percent of GDP compared to the global average of 2.7 per cent.

The report suggested aligning research and industry efforts with emerging global trends, such as green technologies, sustainable infrastructure, and long-term environmental strategies.

QS also advised India to strengthen partnerships between industry and academia to align curricula with evolving business needs and foster innovation by encouraging entrepreneurial and problem-solving mindsets through academic programmes.

Matteo Quacquarelli, QS vice-president strategy and analytics, said, “India’s outstanding GDP growth in recent years, developing economy, youth population and start-up culture, are all putting the country on the world stage and on a strengthened footpath to success. While other nations are dealing with demographic problems around aging societies, India’s current population offer multiple unique opportunities for further development.”