REENGINEERING NATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH MENTORING: REFLECTIONS ACROSS INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

Abstract

India has a strong footprint across Indo Pacific region in terms of global talent and human skills and is presently into the transitional phase of building human capital repository that is skilled, mobile and responsive to futuristic technological change. Recognizing the precedence that technology is going to take in economy in coming years, it becomes imperative for institutions of national importance to be harbinger of change and innovation. The change categorically refers to the reframing of skill quotient of India with special emphasis on human capital and the ways institutions that are academia, policy makers and corporates are going to respond to.

The historic mentorship scenarios have been caught by redundancy and widening of objective-result gaps, as India is heading towards open innovation workspaces. This shift calls for redesigning HRD interventions for new skill frame. Mentorship as an HRD tool, possess the power to unleash hidden and unconscious potentialities amongst the institutions and members. Mentorship provides hidden potential the platform to get converted into skills whereas for unconscious but talented self, mentorship act as a mirror wherein actualization has scope to come to front.  From redundancy to innovative workspaces, mentorship acts as a change agent with potential for skill development and talent actualization.

Developing on this understanding, the proposed research work aims to draw attention towards the need for reviewing present and developing alternate mentorship models at National-Intermediary- Institutional (N-I-I) level as the concept of mentorship has gained momentum with the advent of national policies aiming at harnessing the rich demographic dividend in Indian context. At the bottom of mentorship pyramid rests the human resource development that need to be reengineered in terms of shift that skills across globe are witnessing (critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and technology responsiveness) and to create an ecosystem that imbibe scientific temper and creativity across individuals. The paper seeks to create HRD model as per national policy framework to create a sustainable but tailored mentorship model catering to the diverse mentor-mentee scenarios across India. 

Further, the present paper will review and connect literature on mentorship at three levels i.e. national level, intermediary level and institutional level. The connect will help in investigating the expected deliverables out of N-I-I model and the context (HRD framework) that supports the deliverables.  It becomes pertinent to clarify that in Indian context the N-I-I mentorship model is indigenous and tailored as per the national human development interests. At macro level the present research will investigate N-I-I model that comprise of NITI AAYOG (N) as a national mentorship crusader in India, academia as intermediary (I) and skill/incubation centres (I) as institutions. The paper seeks to bring out the mode of interaction amongst these entities and the resultant outcomes in terms of national human resource development strategies and composite skill generation.