A child at a water pump in Bihar.

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The initial impetus for growth in the North can come from the rapidly growing areas in the rest of India. But this requires transport and communication investments directed at connecting the northern regions to the booming South and West.

Besides transport, massive improvements are needed in market logistics -- banking, trading channels, information etc. Of course, all this will not matter unless other deficiencies like poor power supply, inefficient administration and the lack of law and order are corrected.

When it comes to skills at the all-India level, as of 2004-05, barely 15 per cent of the workers in the 15-29 age group had received formal or informal training. As for the northern states, their skill level numbers are way below this depressing all-India numbers.

Just for comparison, in the late 90's, the percentage of young workers (20-24 years old) who had received formal training was 22 in Botswana, 28 in Colombia, 36 in Mauritius and 28 in Mexico.

Accelerated skill development is needed in every state in India over the next two decades, and particularly so in the northern states, where the bulk of the new young workers will be found.