https://sputniknews.in/20260715/good-brains-and-skilled-hands-as-strategic-advantage--11665054.html
Good Brains And Skilled Hands As Strategic Advantage
Good Brains And Skilled Hands As Strategic Advantage
Sputnik India
Two very respected Indian writers have really shocked me recently. 15.07.2026, Sputnik India
2026-07-15T18:57+0530
2026-07-15T18:57+0530
2026-07-15T18:57+0530
science & tech
india
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moscow
european union (eu)
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We are talking about their feature in The Pioneer, stating that India's own economy needs the same workers the world is recruiting away from it.The authors are Suresh Prabhu, a former union minister and parliamentarian, and Shobhit Mathur, the vice-chancellor of Rishihood University. Surely these people know what they talk about. And they talk, essentially, about drastic changes in the world of tomorrow, where good brains and skilled hands will be or should be strategic advantage of nations.They give us facts and figures, too. Like, rich countries are ageing faster than their training systems can replace blue-collar workers. In 2023, 75% of EU firms reported difficulty filling skilled roles. Germany faces an annual gap of roughly 200,000 construction workers. Japan projects a shortfall of 570,000 care workers by 2040. And here, in the opinion column mentioned, comes Russia, which is supposed to need 789,000 more construction workers by 2030 and, according to its own Higher School of Economics, may require over 12 million foreign workers by 2032.Finally, “India exists as the answer” – so far, that is, but, according to our two writers, the construction and real-estate sector alone is projected to require 30 million additional workers by 2030, including 10.5 million skilled tradespeople. Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore are building housing, metros, and data parks at a pace that would absorb every available mason and electrician domestically.So, we have two horror stories here at the same time. One is the grim future of the West (Russia included, though its Westernness is definitely under a cloud today). That West is supposed to crumble down without an ever-growing inflow of workers from countries like India. The other is a familiar horror of estimated 7-8 million Indian youths flooding annually domestic labour markets, that horror being firmly imbedded into the minds of those who say that India has no future. The problem here is, have these people ever heard about India’s annual 8 per cent economic growth, that calls for more and more skilled hands to maintain it?Wait, two more horrors are coming. One is a familiar narrative of uncontrolled crowds of migrants swamping the US and the EU, with that endless drain of social security money, needed to keep these crowds alive. And do not forget the grim prospect of these migrants eroding societies and cultures in alien lands, whose lifestyles these deprived people openly hate. It is very possible that all political changes in Europe and America will be in favor of politicians who think and talk just like that.While the horror #4 is of Filipino origin. There, in South East Asia, we have an unusual nation, where I have spent wonderful years as a foreign correspondent. And here comes another long quote from a recent article in The Asia Times of Hong Kong.We read there about two million Filipino workers whom the state contracts out annually to foreign employers. What leaves the country “is the accumulated education, competence and development potential embedded in that labor”. The positive result is money remitted to families left at home, of course. But that flow is “generating reliable returns without requiring tech innovation or, God forbid, exposure to international competition”. So, the money that “support household consumption, stabilize the peso and strengthen the balance of payments—then flow, in substantial part, into the conglomerate-controlled retail chains, real estate portfolios and utility bills that oligarchic families have spent decades insulating from competition. The diaspora funds the system that produced the diaspora”.And the result of that result is a country “with this demographic profile, this geographic position and this level of demonstrated workforce competence continuing to underperform every comparable economy in the region”.It sound very much like a simple formulae of our two Indian writers, namely, “India is left with a pipeline that trains workers for others”.What we have here is an obviously global problem: changes in workforce flows and impact. You have to watch it carefully, since the shape of the future to come seriously depends on clever predictions and decisions made today, in this nation or that.And where do you go for things clever? You turn to science, of course. Preferably you turn to you friends in science. That’s how a made a wonderful discovery related to my old friend (but a young lady) called Lydia Kulik, with whom I accidentally had a chat a day ago. I knew, of course, that she was an Indologist. But now, as I’ve just discovered, Dr Lydia Kulik is Head of India Studies, India Lab, Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, while she keeps her ties with Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow.And the research she was doing recently in Skolkovo is called Human Capital in India and Russia In Search for Complementarity. You may read it now, if you want.Skolkovo, now, is not the above-mentioned Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and definitely not the Institute of Oriental Studies. That modernist building on the outskirts of Moscow contains teams whose work is strictly about business.And so, what we see in Lydia’s document, co-authored by other people, is a lot of surveys of Russian corporations already employing Indians. That includes big retail chains or hi-brow laboratories. Same goes for Indian hi-skilled workers in Russia, also surveyed. There is also a thick pile of recordings of conversations with the State officials, with reliable statistics accumulated. In fact, that research is so good, that it could be called journalistics of the highest class.And, finally, there is that culmination of that document, called “conclusion”. Let’s see what’s in there.Lydia and her colleagues are saying: the complementarity in the sphere of human capital between Russia and India lies not only in the obvious factors — such as demographic synergy: India’s growing young population and Russia’s ageing population.This, the report is going on, is an area that is showing strong momentum and is of interest to Russian companies. Whilst in 2025, India was allocated 67,404 out of 235,643 quotas, by 2026 this figure had risen to 90,384 out of 278,940 (…) In 2026, around 750 Russian companies will recruit staff from India (in 2025, there were just over 600). The process has been watched closely by the two governments.More facts: what employers particularly value is the low staff turnover among Indian employees, at around 10%. On average, the payback period for investment in Indian personnel is 6–9 months, and the recommended contract term is 2–3 years. But, what’s more important, we are talking about employment programs that start in India, with plenty of technological transfer in the process.You really need to read the whole report, especially if you want to see exactly how the movement of hi-skilled workforce from India to Russia and back… yes, back – from Russia to India, may, one day, form a new integrated labor market, spanning over borders, lands and water. So maybe the future does not need to be threatening, after all.Dmitry Kosyrev is a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com
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india, russia, moscow, european union (eu), science & tech
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We are talking about their feature in The Pioneer,
stating that India's own economy needs the same workers the world is recruiting away from it.
The authors are Suresh Prabhu, a former union minister and parliamentarian, and Shobhit Mathur, the vice-chancellor of Rishihood University. Surely these people know what they talk about. And they talk, essentially, about drastic changes in the world of tomorrow, where good brains and skilled hands will be or should be strategic advantage of nations.
They give us facts and figures, too. Like, rich countries are ageing faster than their training systems can replace blue-collar workers. In 2023, 75% of EU firms reported difficulty filling skilled roles. Germany faces an annual gap of roughly 200,000 construction workers. Japan projects a shortfall of 570,000 care workers by 2040. And here, in the opinion column mentioned, comes Russia, which is supposed to need 789,000 more construction workers by 2030 and, according to its own Higher School of Economics, may require over 12 million foreign workers by 2032.
Finally, “India exists as the answer” – so far, that is, but, according to our two writers, the construction and real-estate sector alone is projected to require 30 million additional workers by 2030, including 10.5 million skilled tradespeople. Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore are building housing, metros, and data parks at a pace that would absorb every available mason and electrician domestically.
So, we have two horror stories here at the same time. One is the grim future of the West (Russia included, though its Westernness is definitely under a cloud today). That West is supposed to crumble down without an ever-growing inflow of workers from countries like India. The other is a familiar horror of estimated 7-8 million Indian youths flooding annually domestic labour markets, that horror being firmly imbedded into the minds of those who say that India has no future. The problem here is, have these people ever heard about India’s annual 8 per cent economic growth, that calls for more and more skilled hands to maintain it?
Wait, two more horrors are coming. One is a familiar narrative of uncontrolled crowds of migrants swamping the US and the EU, with that endless drain of social security money, needed to keep these crowds alive. And do not forget the grim prospect of these migrants eroding societies and cultures in alien lands, whose lifestyles these deprived people openly hate. It is very possible that all political changes in Europe and America will be in favor of politicians who think and talk just like that.
While the horror #4 is of Filipino origin. There, in South East Asia, we have an unusual nation, where I have spent wonderful years as a foreign correspondent. And here comes another long quote from a recent
article in The Asia Times of Hong Kong.
We read there about
two million Filipino workers whom the state contracts out annually to foreign employers. What leaves the country “is the accumulated education, competence and development potential embedded in that labor”. The positive result is money remitted to families left at home, of course. But that flow is “generating reliable returns without requiring tech innovation or, God forbid, exposure to international competition”. So, the money that “
support household consumption, stabilize the peso and strengthen the balance of payments—then flow, in substantial part, into the conglomerate-controlled retail chains, real estate portfolios and utility bills that oligarchic families have spent decades insulating from competition. The diaspora funds the system that produced the diaspora”.
And the result of that result is a country “with this demographic profile, this geographic position and this level of demonstrated workforce competence continuing to underperform every comparable economy in the region”.
It sound very much like a simple formulae of our two Indian writers, namely, “India is left with a pipeline that trains workers for others”.
What we have here is an obviously global problem: changes in workforce flows and impact. You have to watch it carefully, since the shape of the future to come seriously depends on clever predictions and decisions made today, in this nation or that.
And where do you go for things clever? You turn to science, of course. Preferably you turn to you friends in science. That’s how a made a wonderful discovery related to my old friend (but a young lady) called Lydia Kulik, with whom I accidentally had a chat a day ago. I knew, of course, that she was an Indologist. But now, as I’ve just discovered, Dr Lydia Kulik is Head of India Studies, India Lab, Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, while she keeps her ties with Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow.
And the research she was doing recently in Skolkovo is called Human Capital in India and Russia In Search for Complementarity. You may
read it now, if you want.
Skolkovo, now, is not the above-mentioned Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and definitely not the Institute of Oriental Studies. That modernist building on the outskirts of Moscow contains teams whose work is strictly about business.
And so, what we see in Lydia’s document, co-authored by other people, is a lot of surveys of Russian corporations already employing Indians. That includes big retail chains or hi-brow laboratories. Same goes for Indian hi-skilled workers in Russia, also surveyed. There is also a thick pile of recordings of conversations with the State officials, with reliable statistics accumulated. In fact, that research is so good, that it could be called journalistics of the highest class.
And, finally, there is that culmination of that document, called “conclusion”. Let’s see what’s in there.
Lydia and her colleagues are saying: the complementarity in the sphere of human capital between Russia and India lies not only in the obvious factors — such as demographic synergy: India’s growing young population and Russia’s ageing population.
This, the report is going on, is an area that is showing strong momentum and is of interest to Russian companies. Whilst in 2025, India was allocated 67,404 out of 235,643 quotas, by 2026 this figure had risen to 90,384 out of 278,940 (…) In 2026, around 750 Russian companies will recruit staff from India (in 2025, there were just over 600). The process has been watched closely by the two governments.
More facts: what employers particularly value is the low staff turnover among Indian employees, at around 10%. On average, the payback period for investment in Indian personnel is 6–9 months, and the recommended contract term is 2–3 years. But, what’s more important, we are talking about employment programs that start in India, with plenty of technological transfer in the process.
You really need to read the whole report, especially if you want to see exactly how the movement of hi-skilled workforce from India to Russia and back… yes, back – from Russia to India, may, one day, form a new integrated labor market, spanning over borders, lands and water. So maybe the future does not need to be threatening, after all.
Dmitry Kosyrev is a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com
