Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Mon Apr 11, 2016 1:39 am

... The need to train workers up -- and quickly -- is paramount. Currently only 2% of India's workers have received formal skills training, according to Ernst & Young. That compares with 68% in the U.K., 75% in Germany and 96% in South Korea. It's a problem spread across industries. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors estimates that in 2010, India needed nearly 4 million civil engineers, but only 509,000 professionals had the right skills for the jobs. By 2020, India will have only 778,000 civil engineers for 4.6 million slots.

I was talking to some in India - works as an Architect. He was laughing that no girl will marry him for the salary he is making Rs 30,000 as an architect. Another guy switched to IT from manufacturing as girls repeatedly turned him down unless he switched to IT (and the A/C white collar job) with higher pay. He did and ended up in US after 2 years as a code coolie.

by smArtha Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:09 am

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:
I was talking to some in India - works as an Architect. He was laughing that no girl will marry him for the salary he is making Rs 30,000 as an architect. Another guy switched to IT from manufacturing as girls repeatedly turned him down unless he switched to IT (and the A/C white collar job) with higher pay. He did and ended up in US after 2 years as a code coolie.

Last year, back in India, we hired two priests (brothers in mid to late 20s) to conduct a pooja/ritual. They inherited about 300+ client families and contacts. Each of them averages around Rs. 1-1.5 lakhs in monthly earnings. Yet no girls were willing to marry them - even those from priestly families. The older one who was approaching the 30 threshold got super vexed trying for about 5 years and finally managed to marry his maternal uncle's daughter (10th pass) working on elders from both sides in resolving decades old differences. The younger one was remarking to me that his chances are way superior if he held a Rs 10-15K/month IT job than 10 times that as a Priest.

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:20 am

smArtha wrote:
Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:
I was talking to some in India - works as an Architect. He was laughing that no girl will marry him for the salary he is making Rs 30,000 as an architect. Another guy switched to IT from manufacturing as girls repeatedly turned him down unless he switched to IT (and the A/C white collar job) with higher pay. He did and ended up in US after 2 years as a code coolie.

Last year, back in India, we hired two priests (brothers in mid to late 20s) to conduct a pooja/ritual. They inherited about 300+ client families and contacts. Each of them averages around Rs. 1-1.5 lakhs in monthly earnings. Yet no girls were willing to marry them - even those from priestly families. The older one who was approaching the 30 threshold got super vexed trying for about 5 years and finally managed to marry his maternal uncle's daughter (10th pass) working on elders from both sides in resolving decades old differences. The younger one was remarking to me that his chances are way superior if he held a Rs 10-15K/month IT job than 10 times that as a Priest.

The priests are in short supply and they seem to make a big killing. Unfortunately, the other factors - status and standing - come into play, and perception plays the biggest role in this.

It is all about the IT Maya.

by confuzzled dude Mon Apr 11, 2016 1:53 pm

Bane. Overpopulation is never good. The best India ever did was to create 3 million jobs a year and here we're talking about 10s of millions joining the workforce every year. I'm afraid this will be worse than the '70s and '80s situation. There will be mass migrations out of India (exodus), as Indian service or manufacturing sectors won't be able to absorb all these folks. All the billions of dollars that are supposedly coming into India are not to create jobs rather to target the consumer so they won't do jack to help alleviate the situation.

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Mon Apr 11, 2016 2:11 pm

confuzzled dude wrote:Bane. Overpopulation is never good. The best India ever did was to create 3 million jobs a year and here we're talking about 10s of millions joining the workforce every year. I'm afraid this will be worse than the '70s and '80s situation. There will be mass migrations out of India (exodus), as Indian service or manufacturing sectors won't be able to absorb all these folks. All the billions of dollars that are supposedly coming into India are not to create jobs rather to target the consumer so they won't do jack to help alleviate the situation.

The day when India loses its edge on 'IT Services industry' the sky will fall. Naturally, India will have to rely on everyone else for everything else - roads, tunnels, bridges, power plants, transportation, and construction.

by garam_kuta Mon Apr 11, 2016 3:54 pm

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:
smArtha wrote:
Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:
I was talking to some in India - works as an Architect. He was laughing that no girl will marry him for the salary he is making Rs 30,000 as an architect. Another guy switched to IT from manufacturing as girls repeatedly turned him down unless he switched to IT (and the A/C white collar job) with higher pay. He did and ended up in US after 2 years as a code coolie.

Last year, back in India, we hired two priests (brothers in mid to late 20s) to conduct a pooja/ritual. They inherited about 300+ client families and contacts. Each of them averages around Rs. 1-1.5 lakhs in monthly earnings. Yet no girls were willing to marry them - even those from priestly families. The older one who was approaching the 30 threshold got super vexed trying for about 5 years and finally managed to marry his maternal uncle's daughter (10th pass) working on elders from both sides in resolving decades old differences. The younger one was remarking to me that his chances are way superior if he held a Rs 10-15K/month IT job than 10 times that as a Priest.

The priests are in short supply and they seem to make a big killing. Unfortunately, the other factors - status and standing - come into play, and perception plays the biggest role in this.

It is all about the IT Maya.

please, it's very enticing for them to migrate in the super special category, but they really suffer in the long run. I personally know a couple of them and their familis; the cultural shock and being unable to let their children assimilate - the dislocated family is shattered in grief particularly when they are in college, away from home.

by SomeProfile Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:22 pm

smArtha wrote:
Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:
I was talking to some in India - works as an Architect. He was laughing that no girl will marry him for the salary he is making Rs 30,000 as an architect. Another guy switched to IT from manufacturing as girls repeatedly turned him down unless he switched to IT (and the A/C white collar job) with higher pay. He did and ended up in US after 2 years as a code coolie.

Last year, back in India, we hired two priests (brothers in mid to late 20s) to conduct a pooja/ritual. They inherited about 300+ client families and contacts. Each of them averages around Rs. 1-1.5 lakhs in monthly earnings. Yet no girls were willing to marry them - even those from priestly families. The older one who was approaching the 30 threshold got super vexed trying for about 5 years and finally managed to marry his maternal uncle's daughter (10th pass) working on elders from both sides in resolving decades old differences. The younger one was remarking to me that his chances are way superior if he held a Rs 10-15K/month IT job than 10 times that as a Priest.

Those priests should look at migrating to the US. This is what I have noticed about many young Hindu priests in the US:

1. They make very good money if they are in first- and second-tier cities, are good at doing the typical pujas and sevas, and have good communication skills (I am not talking super salesman skills, just than your average Indian priest skills).

2. They have personable to hot wives. I am yet to see a young priest (who all get married AFTER coming to the US) with a bad-looking wife. I have seen old priests (who presumably got married BEFORE coming to the US) with not-so-good-looking wives. Have seen one priest whose wife looks like a South Indian movie star!

3. Once they manage to get the religious category visa, they get green card and citizenship very quickly.

4. Working hours can vary depending on the particular temple they work at and the number of colleagues they have. Week days are better than weekends obviously. I have seen big variations from lone priests slogging long hours to a whole team of priests with relatively easy hours. I have also seen very popular priests whose calendars are booked by private pujas and events months in advance.

5. Management also varies anywhere from friendly and protective to demanding and hostile. All priests have to deal with temple boards filled with Indians, and associated politics.

by confuzzled dude Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:59 pm

Speaking of Priests, my father is a member of local temple management team, a year and half ago, they hired a priest to replace the one that had left and this guy turned out to be a cheat, he ran away with a bike my father loaned him along with the cash from temple Hundi. Apparently, this guy has been doing this sort of stuff for a while and many police cases were already filed against him.

by truthbetold Mon Apr 11, 2016 8:01 pm

So priests represent the teeming millions of India?

by smArtha Tue Apr 12, 2016 2:41 pm

SomeProfile wrote:
smArtha wrote:

Last year, back in India, we hired two priests (brothers in mid to late 20s) to conduct a pooja/ritual. They inherited about 300+ client families and contacts. Each of them averages around Rs. 1-1.5 lakhs in monthly earnings. Yet no girls were willing to marry them - even those from priestly families. The older one who was approaching the 30 threshold got super vexed trying for about 5 years and finally managed to marry his maternal uncle's daughter (10th pass) working on elders from both sides in resolving decades old differences. The younger one was remarking to me that his chances are way superior if he held a Rs 10-15K/month IT job than 10 times that as a Priest.

Those priests should look at migrating to the US. This is what I have noticed about many young Hindu priests in the US:

Agree. If they know their stuff and can manage simple conversational hinglish or tinglish they can make a killing here in the US.

by garam_kuta Tue Apr 12, 2016 4:59 pm

confuzzled dude wrote:Speaking of Priests, my father is a member of local temple management team, a year and half ago, they hired a priest to replace the one that had left and this guy turned out to be a cheat, he ran away with a bike my father loaned him along with the cash from temple Hundi. Apparently, this guy has been doing this sort of stuff for a while and many police cases were already filed against him.

i presume this is in india...

by Sponsored content

Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane

Re: Indian mindboggling demographics - Boon or bane