New Delhi, Oct. 28 -- To become a manufacturing powerhouse, India requires a systemic overhaul. While a few thousand crore rupees worth of targeted subsidies may speak of the government's ambition to raise the share of factory output in India's economy to 25% within a decade, what's no longer clear is whether this can expand jobs in the same proportion.

The time is long past when textile mills could draw workers straight off paddy fields; the level of skill required to become a factory hand back then wasn't an entry barrier for anyone with the will to work.

A decade ago, a factory worker needed at least a diploma in engineering to join a globally competitive business. Today, with the arrival of artificial intelligence and zero-latency n...