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QS World Future Skills Index: India Spotlight
1 April 2025
Insights
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India’s strong focus on future skills and emerging job trends positions it as a forward-thinking nation with significant potential, with great performance in Future of Work and Academic Readiness. However, challenges in its current economic and academic systems could slow progress.
Welcome to the India Spotlight on the QS World Future Skills Index, where we explore higher education’s critical role in shaping the workforce of tomorrow. This tailored resource empowers you to analyse India's future skills supply and demand, benchmark key industry jobs and skills gaps against over 80 countries, and align your higher education system with the skills training required for economic transformation.
India performance overview
India’s strong focus on future skills and emerging job trends positions it as a forward-thinking nation with significant potential, as evidenced by the country’s performance in Future of Work and Academic Readiness. However, challenges in its current economic and academic systems could slow progress - while India has a strong economy, there is low investment in research and development and the country is not close to reaching its own environmental policy targets. Greater collaboration between government, industry, and academic institutions will be critical to overcoming these barriers. By working together to strengthen education and create aligned opportunities, India can ensure its workforce is equipped to thrive in the global economy and fully realise the benefits of its future-oriented initiatives.
About the indicators
Skills Fit
The Skills Fit indicator measures how well countries are equipping graduates with the skills that employers desire. This is assessed by determining the gap between what employers find important and their level of satisfaction with the skills provided by graduates. This is done using data from the QS Global Employer Survey, the largest of its kind, and data from the World Bank Group. Since 2021, over 100,000 employers have rated the importance of certain skills and their satisfaction in their graduate hires.
Future of Work
The Future of Work indicator evaluates a country’s readiness to recruit for the skills needed in the jobs of tomorrow. Specifically, it measures how well the job market is prepared to meet the growing demand for digital, AI, and green skills, all of which are becoming critical as economies transition towards technology-driven and sustainable industries.
Academic Readiness
This dimension measures how well a country is prepared for the future of work. We look at the number of universities assessed for the QS World University Rankings by Subject, and how they perform. We then measure this in tandem with population size – if a country has a large population but few well-ranked institutions, for example, the country will be penalised.
Economic Transformation
Economic Transformation uses a weighted formula to assess a country’s readiness to support the growth and future of work and skills by examining various key indicators. The Index highlights whether a country has the infrastructure, investment power, and talent available to transition to industries driven by AI, digital transformation, green technologies, and high-skilled work, using data from the World Bank Group, UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Education Policy Institute
India performance in detail
Skills Fit
Employers across India are highlighting a critical gap in the workforce’s ability to meet the demands of a rapidly changing economic landscape. While Adaptive Life Long Skills and Human-Centred Leadership are generally seen as meeting expectations, there is a pronounced gap in Entrepreneurial & Innovative Mindset skills. This shortfall underscores a broader challenge for India’s higher education system, which is struggling to keep pace with evolving employer needs. To address this, universities must prioritise embedding creativity, problemsolving, and entrepreneurial thinking into their curricula and foster stronger collaborations with industry to better align education with workforce demands.
Future of Work
Employers in India are seeking the skills essential for the future of work, with particularly strong demand for Green, AI, and Digital expertise compared to other countries. This reflects India’s growing alignment with global trends and its ambition to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving job market. However, while demand is high, the challenge lies in ensuring the supply of talent keeps pace
Academic Readiness
India’s Academic Readiness reflects a robust focus on AI and digital fields, showcasing its commitment to aligning education with future economic demands. However, a gap in green skills performance highlights the need to integrate sustainability into curricula, addressing global priorities. With 69 universities featured in QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024, India has a solid foundation, but significant scope to expand its impact. Bridging these gaps through targeted higher education reforms and fostering skills alignment will be pivotal for driving innovation, strengthening economic resilience, and securing global competitiveness.
Economic Transformation
India’s economic transformation has been driven by the interplay of growth, workforce efficiency, and the evolving role of higher education. While GDP expansion and improving productivity have driven progress, higher education institutions have emerged as critical enablers in equipping the workforce with future-ready skills. However, gaps in investment and innovation capacity pose challenges that could slow long-term growth. To fully realise its potential, India must align economic momentum with robust higher education reforms and skills development, ensuring a dynamic and competitive position in the global economy
Conclusion and analysis
The Indian economy is the fifth largest in the world and was the fastest growing G20 economy in 2024. Industries driving this growth include FMCG, Infrastructure, Healthcare, IT and Renewables. The economic innovation being driven globally through AI, Digital and Green is very evident in India wherein it scores second in the world for Future of Work, signalling that Indian employers today are demanding the innovative skills of tomorrow
However, there are clear areas of improvement required. Our analysis and recommendations:
Integrate lifelong learning and workforce re-skilling programmes for at-risk occupational categories
- Given the rapid evolution and innovation in the Indian economy, it is clear that graduates are struggling to keep up with the pace of change in relevant skills required.
- India’s overall Skills Fit score is lower than counterparts in APAC, with a particularly large skills gap in Entrepreneurial and Innovative Mindset.
- However, the strength of the Indian higher education sector to adapt is clear. Outperforming the average performance of other BRICS nations, India’s Academic Readiness score shows that the country’s universities already gaining a reputation for their AI, digital and green related subjects.
- Government policy and higher education will require a focused strategy to re-engage workers in continuous and lifelong reskilling programmes to ensure skilled workers remain relevant and productivity contributors
Invest in sustainability research and green skills development
- Green readiness is an area of relative underperformance for the Indian economy versus G20 peers. Whilst rising demand for green occupations and green skilled workers is clear through the India’s strong Future of Work score, India places 176 in the Environmental Performance Index.
- Higher education must play a vital role in driving the Sustainability agenda for India going forward, and, again, the sector is positioning itself well. 57% of the Indian institutions ranked in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2025 improved their Environmental Impact score.
- Policy makers must realise the potential of India’s higher education sector by investing in sustainable R&D and address green skill gaps by aligning curricula and learning modes to nurture the green skills necessary.
