New Delhi, September 3, 2025: Equipping India’s workforce with green skills will be critical for meeting the twin challenges of economic growth and climate action, said experts at a high-level plenary on ‘Skilling for a Green Future’ on the second day of WRI India’s annual flagship event, Connect Karo 2025, on Wednesday.

The session highlighted that while India has made significant progress in strengthening its skilling ecosystem, the rapid expansion of clean energy, sustainable manufacturing, and resource-efficient practices now calls for urgent reforms in training and workforce development. Speakers emphasised that the transition to a low-carbon economy could create millions of jobs, but workers must be trained in line with the demands of emerging sectors.

Madhav Pai, CEO, WRI India said, “India aims to create 3.4 million jobs in the green sector by 2030. To meet this demand, we must adopt an ‘identify–train–recruit’ approach to skilling. Public–private partnership models are key, and the private sector must play a deeper role in workforce development. Above all, the skilling transition has to be inclusive and just, ensuring that vulnerable communities also benefit from the opportunities of a green economy.” 

Expanding the discussion, Shashishekhar Pandit, Chairman and Co-founder, KPIT Technologies, underlined the global context of shifting jobs and the need to rethink economic growth models. He said, “We are witnessing both a shift and shrink in jobs.

Manufacturing jobs are moving geographically, while technological change is shrinking traditional roles. With AI, many more jobs will soon come under question. At the same time, our current economic model is exploitative - forests are being destroyed, plastic is filling our oceans, and our air and rivers are polluted. We need to fundamentally shift towards a sustainable model that creates value without destroying the environment.”

Arpit Sharma, CEO, Skill Council for Green Jobs further said, “India has set a target of reducing one billion tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030, which is also leading to creation of a large number of green jobs. To meet this demand, we are revamping existing curricula, designing new ones, and preparing certificate training programs to make the workforce ready for green jobs in an evolving industry landscape. While we draw on international best practices, we are tailoring the curricula and training to suit the local context.” 

Connect Karo 2025 brought together leaders committed to critical issues related to sustainable cities, clean energy, food, land and water and climate action and finance. The two-day convening hosted more than 150 thought leaders, experts, academics, scientists and civil society members to discuss the most urgent development and environmental challenges of our times.

Need to Shift Mindset when it comes to Urban Mobility 

Speaking at a session on “Shift Transport —Data-driven Decision-Making for India’s Urban Mobility” at Connect Karo, Kailash Gahlot, Member of Delhi Legislative Assembly, said, “The biggest hurdle in mobility today is the debate around fare box collection and cost recovery. When we talk about mobility, we cannot focus only on how much money is recovered. We don’t call hospitals or schools loss-making institutions—our mindset has to change.” 

He further said, “Public transport must be seen as a social investment with wide-ranging benefits, not as a revenue-generating scheme. Any city or country with a strong transport system attracts investments and drives both social and economic development.”

Joining the same session virtually, Tejasvi Surya, Member of the Lok Sabha, said, “For too long, we have prioritized vehicles over moving people. Our cities need people-centric infrastructure and a shift towards data-driven decision-making. Strengthening governance in urban local bodies and building capacity in our corporations is critical. The only sustainable solution to traffic congestion is investing in more public transport, not building more roads.” 

Pawan Mulukutla, Executive Program Director - Integrated Transport, Clean Air and Hydrogen at WRI India, said, “To make urban mobility truly seamless and integrated, we need a robust framework that looks at transport economics with demand, supply, and performance indicators. Equally critical is mandating the collection of household travel data across all cities. Only then can transport planning be evidence-based, inclusive of diverse user needs, and guided by a spatial-temporal approach to effectively address urban mobility challenges.”

In a fireside chat, G. Mathivathanan, Director General, State Administrative Training Institute and Head, Centre for Good Governance, Govt of Odisha emphasized on institutionalizing innovation. He said, “Transformation in urban governance is possible only through innovation, and innovation must be tested, validated, scaled, and finally institutionalized so that it outlasts individual leaders or teams. In Odisha, we focused on systemic reforms such as universal piped water, slum upgradation, and dignified habitat. These are models that have drawn national and global recognition. The hallmark has been speed, scale, and sustainability in addressing challenges that were once thought impossible.”

Media Contacts:
Tanushree Venkatraman | tanushree.venkatraman@wri.org 
Satbhan Singh | satbhan.singh@wri.org

About WRI India
WRI India, an independent charity legally registered as the India Resources Trust, provides objective information and practical proposals to foster environmentally sound and socially equitable development. Through research, analysis, and recommendations, WRI India puts ideas into action to build transformative solutions to protect the earth, promote livelihoods, and enhance human well-being. 

Know more: wri-india.org/

Key Launches at Connect Karo

  • Alliance | CI-nergy: WRI India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) launched the CI-NERGY Alliance—Steering Energy Transitions. This marks the beginning of a unified, national effort to accelerate clean energy adoption across India’s commercial and industrial sector.
  • Expert Note | Towards a Framework to Support Better Decision-Making in Indian Mobility: Supply, Demand and Performance: India’s urban mobility planning has seen major investments in metros and electric buses, aligning with the national goals. Yet, rising private vehicle use is worsening air quality, safety and equity due to a lack of holistic planning and a lack of commuter data. This note addresses the need for a holistic, data-driven framework to guide future mobility decisions.
  • Report | Scaling RTS Adoption in India’s SMEs through Demand Aggregation and Machine Learning: Pilot Study from Haryana: India’s 500 GW non-fossil fuel capacity target by 2030 hinges on a crucial, often overlooked sector: its 63 million MSMEs. The report provides a step-by-step model that enables SMEs to become a driving force in the nation’s clean energy transition while boosting their economic competitiveness.
  • Report | Towards Ecosystem Restoration and Climate Resilient Communities: Findings from a Restoration Opportunities Assessment in Gadchiroli: In the backdrop of India’s commitments to restoring degraded land and enhancing forest and tree cover, WRI India applied a landscape-based approach in Gadchiroli to identify priority areas for restoration.
  • Report | How Cities Can Support India's Energy Transition: The report analyses energy transition initiatives and programs in 10 cities—Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCT, Indore, Kochi, Nagpur, Pune, Rajkot, Surat and Shimla—charting the areas where they have made the most progress and the challenges faced in their respective energy transition pathways.

For more information on the launches, please reach out to tanushree.venkatraman@wri.org and satbhan.singh@wri.org.