India in its near future would be a nation with the largest youth workforce surpassing China and the Indian ruling classes are quite upbeat about it. Representing over 9 percent of the population, Maharashtra will be a major beneficiary of this young workforce. As per the reports from the industry, the endeavors in the State, driven by the vision of equipping 45 million people with employable skills by 2022, Maharashtra is marching on the path of convergence of human capital and employment opportunities.
Indeed, Maharashtra has always been at the forefront of evolving new paradigms, which involve new thought processes. Existence of the largest youth force, rapidly growing economy, the emergence of knowledge as a key driver for the economy and the need to quickly bridge the aspiration gaps are all very compelling reasons for accelerating pointers to urgent actions in respect of all-encompassing quality higher education in India. Today, Maharashtra is well-positioned to offer both access and better employability with this very strong infrastructure when compared to some other states of India. The key is to invest in making the entire infrastructure work together as a single eco-system that can bring aspirations of youth and ambitions of business and industry together, to use knowledge, research and development are needed. This maybe done with strong government support through adequate funding, positive regulation, reforms through legislative intervention, investments in ICT, well-articulated and controlled private participation initiatives.
In this issue, we celebrate the success of Maharashtra’s higher education system by identifying ‘10 Must -Watch Colleges and Institutions in Maharashtra’ that are reinventing various disciplines of education to prepare the young generation to be the leaders of the 21st century. We sincerely hope that our efforts to feature the premier institutions imparting the best facilities for research, innovation, placements, and entrepreneurship will help students and faculty members from all over the country in their educational journey.