Indian Knowledge Systems and the 64 Kalas view for Sustainable Skill Ecosystems: A Policy Analysis and Statistical Assessment of NSQF-NCrF Alignment with Outcome-Based Education

The changed Indian education and skills development game plan (led by the National Education Policy [NEP] 2020 calls for an overall shift from input-oriented, certification models to real, outcome-centred mastery. The paper structures a theoretical and empirical linkage between the traditional wisdom of the indigenous Indian Knowledge System (IKS), particularly the holistic skill taxonomy namely 64 Kalas (Chatushasti Kalā) with contemporary national policy instruments: The National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) & The National Credit Framework (NCrF). A policy gradient analysis, empirically supported by an analysis of descriptive statistics, exposes the prevailing certification bias in current vocational training through a statistical confirmation of declining course durations, along with a persistently high 44.5% youth unemployment rate among Indian graduates between ages 20 and 24 years. The results indicate that the required qualitative correction is made by threading the mastery-orientation implied in Indian Aesthetics (Rasa –Pratibh) through a trans-disciplinary matrix of 64 Kalas. The NCrF is the central institutional nodal point of access that whether it be offered through creditization modes or RPL, reflects a formal mapping between these new skills for the burgeoning non-formal workforce (which 11.6% inherit skills). Suggestions include curriculum normalisation, the creation of applicable teacher capacity and robust RPL also ensure that there is an industry-academia rift as well as the building of); the boundaries across these, and nothing could have been better than going in for an implementation, that will assist in bringing in the divide as well as the fortification of sustainable and equitable social order that is in line with the global SDGs.