Skills in demand: a case of phulbani (Kandhamal) District of Orissa

India will account for 20 per cent of the world¿s global workforce in 2020s. The average age of Indian workforce will be 29 years as compared to 37 for the US and China and 45 years for Europe. A need for skill development and skill up gradation among the labour force as a result of challenges that globalization and changing job patterns posed came in the form of increased emphasis on understandings to be developed with respect to 1. Which skills are to be developed? 2. What are the strategies adopted of skill development of rural populace? 3. Has the supply driven strategies been able to cater to market demands? 4. What is the quantum and quality difference in the two? As the emphasis concurrently is on identification of right skills and developing of the same as a bottom-up approach in order to have 500 million skill manpower in the country by 2022 (that is end of 13th five year plan) the paper is an attempt to making a critical appraisal of demand supply realities in a backward district of a backward State in India.