India’s green economy could support 98.5 lakh jobs by 2030 and nearly 1.3 crore by 2035, according to a new report from the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology (iFOREST), which has called for a National Green Jobs and Skilling Mission to prepare the country’s workforce for emerging opportunities.
The report, titled India’s Green Jobs Moment: Pathways to Build a Future-Ready Workforce, was released on Wednesday at a national conference at the India International Centre in New Delhi, co-organised with the Skill Council for Green Jobs. The projected jobs span renewable energy, green hydrogen, electric mobility, the circular economy and nature-based solutions, with agroforestry, forest restoration and mangrove restoration alone capable of generating about 41.5 lakh jobs.
iFOREST President and CEO Chandra Bhushan said at the launch that India has the ecosystem to deliver this transition if demand and supply are connected. “India has the institutions, the policy momentum and the demographic advantage to build a trained, future-ready green workforce at scale. The priority now is to connect these capabilities to emerging demand,” he elaborated.
The report highlights a mismatch between India’s demographic strength and its skilling base. More than one in four Indians is aged between 15 and 29, but only 5.3% of the population has technical education and 5% has received formal vocational training. About 43% of formal training courses currently run for less than six months, which the report notes will fall short of the deeper technical capabilities needed for emerging green roles.
Dr Shamika Ravi, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said at the launch that skilling is now the binding constraint for business growth. “Today, the biggest constraint to the growth of every business is finding skilled manpower. We have degrees, but we don’t have skills, and the market is now saying it will reward only skill,” she said. She added a note of caution on measurement, saying, “We must also guard against the tyranny of metrics. Targets will be met, but at what cost? Skilling is not an end in itself; job creation is the outcome we must keep in sight.”
The report also mapped the transferability of workers from existing industries into emerging green sectors. About 89% of assessed coal-mining roles have high transferability to metal mining, 90% of automobile roles have high or medium transferability, and 71% of thermal power roles can transition into adjacent green roles.
iFOREST has proposed a three-tier delivery architecture built around a National Green Jobs and Skilling Mission, State Green Jobs and Skilling Missions and district-level Green Jobs and Skilling Cells, supported by a National Green Jobs and Skills Taxonomy.
Niranjan Kumar Sudhansu, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, said at the event that the ministry was finalising a revision of the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and that green jobs and skills would be integrated into the new policy. He highlighted PM-SETU as a mechanism for modernising skilling, including training for high-tech jobs in green sectors.
