The sixth annual Horasis Global India Business Meeting in Liverpool, UK, earlier this year was part of the 50-day long International Festival of Business (IFB2014), the largest global concentration of business events during 2014 to celebrate entrepreneurship and economic growth.

The 250 senior decision makers from business and government included business icons Rahul Bajaj (Bajaj Auto), SK Munjal (Hero MotoCorp), Ajay Piramal (Piramal Group), Preetha Reddy (Apollo Hospitals), Naina Lal Kidwai (HSBC India), Sushma Berlia (Apeejay), Subodh Bhargava (Tata Communications), Rajendra Pawar (NIIT), Jyotsna Suri (Bharat Hotels) and Ashish Chauhan (Bombay Stock Exchange) brushing shoulders with European and other global leaders.

Wide-ranging topics of discussion included India’s transformation and economic outlook, entrepreneurship, urbanization, globalization, technology, financial services, infrastructure, renewables and cleantech, higher education, innovation, venture capital, boosting Indo-European partnerships, and above all, the investor-friendliness of the new government.

With 65% of the 1.3 billion people in India under 35, special emphasis was placed on the needs of the youth who hold the power and the promise to augment India’s socio-economic growth. India is expected to add a million people to its workforce each month for the coming decade. Highly aspirational, connected and mobile, today’s youth is unlike any of the previous generations, and so are their needs and problems.

Speaking at the Horasis conference, the U.K.’sSecretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, reassured Indian students to be very welcome in the country. He also spoke of favouring longer post-study opportunities for foreign students.

I was invited to moderate the session – ‘India’s Youth - A Generation in Transition’ – which looked at challenges and opportunities before India as it tries to harness its demographic dividend.

Paola Cuneo, Campaign Director of UKTI’s Graduate Entrepreneur Programme, cited the example of fellow-panellist Shubham Anand, Chief Executive Officer, of  iGBL in the U.K., as to how U.K. Trade & Investment is playing a significant role in fostering entrepreneurship and attracting several Indians to its many competitions. Shubham felt that India needs to evolve rapidly and not run like a dinosaur in education. He said, “Education technology is a revolution like never before, where MOOCs and online learning are redefining the education landscape.” He emphasised the need for Indian youth to inculcate passion for excellence as well as on the need for India to create an eco-system for budding entrepreneurs.

The overall perspective among Europeans seems to be cautiously optimistic on what India does with its youth potential, and rightly so. Kai Vettel, Managing Director, Pack Performance, Germany, averred, “The demographic dividend could be a huge burden if India does not address its challenges. India needs to prepare its future work force as today’s jobs require higher skilled labour.” Fortunately, India’s new prime minster, Narendra Modi has always stressed on the need for focusing on skill development, and it will be exciting to see how he meets that challenge.

Bringing in yet another perspective to the discussion, HappyPlanet Amusement’s founder Nimish Kenia stressed the need for paying attention to developing motor development of children, by creating spaces like indoor amusement centres. I do agree that there is growing evidence to support linkages between early childhood development and lifecycle outcomes.

Like several other economies, India, too, must address the growing apathy of its youth and engage with them effectively. Quality of education needs to be improved across the spectrum. India should evaluate the success of projects like the Piramal Foundation’s program in Rajasthan where students are allocated short assignments to train rural teachers. Another audience suggestion that merits consideration is to replicate the success of India’s IT industry, where companies provide in-house training to enhance their skills and employability of their staff. India also needs to develop more mentors and role models who can inspire youth to become outliers. Another aspect of the equation is that of brain-drain – what role can students abroad play in nation-building, and how can India incentivise them to contribute more?

Not just in India, but the world over, there seems to be a lot of expectation from the new government, and a hope that it will be decisive. I firmly believe that India cannot address the needs of the youth through a siloed approach, and must simultaneously tackle the three-pronged challenges of improving capacities and capabilities in quality education, entrepreneurial opportunities and job creation. Going by his past track record, PM Modi, known to be business-friendly, has always shown a clear intent of unlocking potential to create a knowledge economy, but whether he will actually be able to deliver all the three aces to India’s youth – only time will tell.