New Delhi, Jan. 15 -- For a long time, we have been banking on India's demographic dividend, or the fact that we have a high proportion of young people in our population. For this demographic dividend to fulfil its economic potential, young citizens need to be skilled and employable.

But we have some catching up to do-45% of children are not proficient in basic literacy and numeracy at the end of primary education, and our universities do not make it to global research leadership charts.

We cannot hope to achieve our Viksit Bharat goal without closing learning gaps. The primary route to do so is through education and training institutions.

India has achieved nearly universal enrolment-most children of school-going age are enrolled in s...