The World Bank has described India’s poverty decline as among the fastest in the world. Between 2011 and 2023, an estimated 496 million Indians moved out of poverty, and the share of those living in extreme poverty fell from 27.1 per cent to 2.6 per cent. The Bank points to strong consumption growth, social transfers and, above all, rising employment, with more women entering paid work. The next task is to maintain the momentum: Better jobs will carry India towards prosperity. Increasingly, those jobs will be green.
As India works towards Viksit Bharat by 2047 and a net-zero economy by 2070, new industries are taking shape in renewable energy, storage, electric vehicles, green hydrogen, recycling, and nature-based solutions that enhance climate resilience. An iFOREST assessment, India’s Green Jobs Moment, estimates that these sectors could together support over 1.3 crore jobs by 2035.
Much of this work is spread across towns and villages and will generate local opportunities. Rooftop solar, EV repair, waste recovery and recycling are local by nature, and employment in nature-based solutions such as agroforestry and mangrove restoration is largely rural. Such opportunities are within reach of the households that have just crossed the poverty line.
India’s greatest asset is its youth. More than 27 per cent of Indians are aged 15–29, and they are better educated than before. In 2025, 17.3 per cent of young people held a graduate degree, and young women (17.9 per cent) are now ahead of young men (16.7 per cent). The labour market is sturdy too, with the worker population ratio just 1.9 percentage points below the labour force participation rate.
India also does not have to build a green workforce from scratch. Skills in today’s industries travel well: About 71 per cent of thermal power roles we assessed show high or medium transferability to renewables and green hydrogen, and 90 per cent of automobile roles can move into EVs with targeted training. Many electricians, machine operators and maintenance technicians are a short bridge course away from a green career.
The challenge now is turning education into technical skills. Here, the room to grow is large. Only 5.3 per cent of young people have technical education, and 5 per cent have formal vocational training. Direct employment in key green sectors is projected to grow by about 4.5 lakh jobs a year, while dedicated green programmes have so far trained around 81,000 people. Even modest expansion would multiply this output many times over. Skilling is largely short-term: About 43 per cent of formally trained workers have completed courses of less than six months, while advanced green roles call for deeper technical knowledge.
India has over 15,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIS) with more than 26 lakh seats, and the Rs 60,000 crore PM-SETU scheme is modernising 1,000 government ITIs. What is needed now is stronger delivery, so that skills translate into employment: Green laboratories, trained instructors, longer-term and high-value programmes alongside short courses, apprenticeships and tracking of placement and career progression. We need an education and skilling continuum that runs from school through technical education and vocational training to the workplace.
The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is revising the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. That can set the base for skilling India’s workforce for the green economy. The next chapter in India’s development story, from escaping poverty to building secure, rising incomes, can be written by green work.
The writer is director, Just Transition and Climate Change, iFOREST
