New Delhi, June 15 -- India's employment problem, like elsewhere, has two dimensions-the number of jobs and their quality. As education levels rise, even when jobs are available, young people aspire to better jobs with higher salaries and greater social status.

India's target, set by the National Education Policy 2020, is to raise the gross enrolment ratio in higher education to 50% by 2035. States such as Tamil Nadu have already crossed it.

In a world of artificial intelligence (AI), we need to ask what kinds of jobs our educated workforce will find, if there will be enough of them, whether this employment will match aspirations and whether job-seekers will have the skills (not just degrees) to do them.

Three types of workers may thri...