India has a youth bulge in its population, accounting for the largest number of young working age people in the world. This demographic dividend can be a tremendous force for economic growth if India can ride the wave. But to do so, 500 million young people need to be schooled and skilled. To make them productive, the government also needs to create 100 million jobs very quickly. If not, the consequences could be catastrophic, finds Latha Jishnu who has tracked the massive skilling mission under way. From Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Alok Gupta and Soma Basu report on what these populous states are doing to harness the energy of their vast youth population