Tag: Employment Generation

Viksit Bharat Goal & Coalition Compulsions

‘Budget Seeks To Balance Viksit Bharat Goal & Coalition Compulsions’

By LokMarg

Prof. Dinesh Yadav, who teaches Economics in Lucknow University, says the government has kept its focus on creating more jobs for youth while also practising its coalition dharma. His views:

If one reads the fine print of the Union Budget 2024, you can clearly see it is primarily aimed at the youth. The financial plan of the Budget underlines its strong focus on upskilling initiatives with a strategic allocation of ₹2 lakh crores for schemes dedicated to enhancing both employability and employment in various sectors. Though late it is heartening that the Union government has understood the long term impact of creating more jobs for professionals and students.

Take for example, the move to scrap the Angel Tax. This welcome step will benefit the education and technology sector by encouraging opportunities for investment, scalability and growth. This will not only provide tax certainty but will also prevent unintended consequences on foreign investments.

Since 2014, the Central government has consistently focused on skill development by opening various training units at district level. The provisions in this Budget for skill development breathes new life in the initiative and will definitely be a booster for supporting the youth over the next five years. However, implementation will as always remain a key factor towards its success.

Now let’s see the contentious part: allocating monetary largesse to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. Clearly, the government opened its treasury for the two states due to coalition compulsions. This is not a hidden fact that the stability of this government depends on the support from the ruling parties of these two state. Simply put, this is the political component of the financial document.

ALSO READ: ‘Skill India Course Better Than A Graduate Degree’

The government gave a sigh of relief to the working class regarding personal income tax by increasing the standard deduction for salaried people, choosing the new tax regime to ₹75,000, which was earlier ₹50,000. Increasing the lowest income slab from ₹2.5 lakh to ₹3 lakh is another populist addition to the budget.

Reengineering the skill loan scheme, that now offers loans up to ₹7.5 lakh and the comprehensive education loan scheme of up to ₹10 lakh for higher studies are also laudable steps taken by the government as both these initiatives will create a foundation for educational growth from early childhood through higher education.

As expected, the government has given ₹1.52 lakh crore for agriculture and related sectors as against last year’s allocation of ₹1.25 lakh increasing the budget by 21.6%. However, despite the continuous demand of farmers, no announcement has been made in the budget regarding Minimum Support Price and the amount of Kisan Samman Nidhi has also not been increased – it remains only ₹6,000 at the previous year.

This budget seems to be in line with the government’s vision of a developed India – Viksit Bharat, as they call it – by 2047. However, instead of meeting the expectations of taxpayers, businessmen, students and youth, the Modi government appears to be delivering a positive financial environment while fulfilling the commitments of the coalition dharma. Despite the expectations of farmers’ loan waivers, more and more employment generation for youths, extra tax exemption to salaried employees and businessmen and multi-developmental budget to backward areas, the budget simply followed its corrective path.

As told to Rajat Rai

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Youth Wants Job Security & Leakage-Free Exams

‘Youth Wants Job Security & Leakage-Free Exams From Modi 3.0’

By LokMarg

Mahendra Vikram, a B. Tech from Kanpur, says Modi in his third term must focus on youths by enhancing job avenues in existing as well as unexplored domains. His views:

I believe among all the issues that the Indian youth are concerned about today, job security sits on the top. The situation is particularly grave in densely populated states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, The shrinking margin of victory for the Narendra Modi government must force the policy makers at the Centre to address this issue.

Besides generating more and more employment in the public sector, the government should also amplify its focus in various other areas of its influence too by creating incentive-based regulations for private players. These should not be focused to a particular region or a state but it should also be extended across the country. In more populous region, for example, the focus could be on labour-intensive skilled jobs.

To begin with, this government should start clearing the backlog vacancies that are in lakhs in almost all the state departments. The backlog is also a major factor of corruption – take for example the electricity sector. In my district itself, most of the power houses are short of engineers and a senior engineer is executing the responsibility of the Ex.En, AE, JE, etc. He is overloaded with work and so is his work which often leads to hushing up responsibilities for obvious gains. This not only affects the quality of work, but also creates scope for pilferage and corruption.

Examination paper leakage is another raging issue that needs to be strictly dealt with. The UP government has introduced the stringent UP Public Examinations Ordinance which includes severe provisions like life imprisonment and fines up to ₹1 crore for those found guilty of leaking examination papers. The Modi government should also work on these lines to check the nuisance which is not only ruining careers but is also costing the aspirants dearly.

ALSO READ: Job Creation Will Be Modi’s Biggest Challenge

In addition, the government should also focus towards better transportation for students and aspirants who routinely face several hardships in reaching the exams centres. My advice is that the government should shun its plan of reducing sleeper bogies and, instead, add additional sleeper and general bogies in the trains at least during the time of examinations.

The government should also focus on opening more and more professional studies institutes like the recently started UP State Institute of Forensic Science in Lucknow. Similar institutes can be set up in the field of media, law, para-medics, performing arts, etc. The ongoing PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana could be further amplified by adding new professional skills into the scheme. At present, the focus of the scheme is to only produce a particular work force such as plumbing, masonry, electrician, carpenter work etc.

The Startup India initiative has been a successful initiative. However, the youth in the Tier 3 and Tier 4 townships are not getting the desired support and avenues. The initiate must penetrate deeper into the country and widen its reach. These are, as I can at present make out, are the aspirations and concerns of the youth who are eagerly waiting to see positive changes in the community and the country.

As told to Rajat Rai

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Job Creation Is Modi’s Biggest Challenge

Job Creation Will Remain Narendra Modi’s Biggest Challenge

By Sanjoy Narayan

One of the recurring refrains in Narendra Modi’s campaign speeches before the elections this year was about how during his past two terms, India grew to become the fifth largest economy in the world after the US, China, Japan, and Germany; and of how, if he won a third term, he would revolve to make it the third largest. The other vision he spoke of was Viksit Bharat 2047, a goal of making India a developed economy by 2047.

After becoming Prime Minister for the third time last month, he has repeated those themes. Last week, speaking in the Rajya Sabha during the motion of thanks following the President’s address, Modi said: “Our economy has moved from the 10th position in the world to the fifth spot and we have now got the mandate to make India the third largest economy.” Once India became the third-largest economy, the Prime Minister said, it would have an impact 

Not only domestically but also on the global level, and he re-emphasised his resolve to make India a developed and self-reliant economy.

Given the rate at which India is growing–official figures show that it clocked a rate of 8.2% in the financial year 2023-24–becoming the third largest economy by overtaking Germany and Japan would likely become a reality in the not-so-distant future. What is not certain, however, is what the impact of that sort of growth will be for the average Indian.

Inflation, Unemployment & Poverty Persist

In recent years, India’s economy has grown at rates higher than any other large economy in the world. That is no mean achievement for a nearly $4-trillion economy. Yet, the impact of that sort of growth even as it has dramatically improved its position on the global pecking order seems to have meant little for its people. A post-poll survey done by the Delhi-based think tank, the Centre for Study of Development Studies (CSDS) found that the three biggest complaints by voters were inflation (listed by 24% of respondents); growing unemployment (23%); and increasing poverty (11%). 

India’s growth has been lopsided. While aggregate GDP has grown impressively, employment generation in the organised sector has not kept pace; and, partly as a consequence, inequality has grown, resulting in the persistence of poverty among millions of Indians even as the number of dollar billionaires in India has soared to 200.

ALSO READ: Why Modi 3.0 Won’t Implode, But I.N.D.I.A. Might

The contrast is jarring. There are fabulously rich Indians who frequently hit the headlines with their splashy lifestyles. The London Times recently wrote about how a cruise ship packed with 800 revellers celebrating an opulent pre-wedding party of a scion of one of India’s richest families stirred complaints from residents of an Italian port city when music from its blaring loudspeakers disturbed the peace into the wee hours of the morning. 

On the other hand, there are millions of Indians who could fall into abject poverty without the free food rations, subsidies for cooking gas, and schemes that guarantee 100 days work for rural workers. These are at best band-aid solutions and not sustained or assured jobs. 

Lack of organised sector jobs

Of an estimated 570 million people who make up the Indian workforce, more than 80% (some estimates suggest it could be 90%) make their living in the unorganised or informal sector, most of them in the rural areas. In the informal sector, jobs lack formal contracts, benefits such as paid leave, or even minimum wages. These informal jobs could be activities such as street vending, home-based micro-businesses, shop workers, domestic servants, etc. In fact, having a job in the informal sector could be akin to being jobless.

One of the reasons for the BJP’s poor showing in this year’s election may have been deep disillusionment with the poor quality of life that millions of Indians have to suffer. Promises of making India the third largest economy in the world, or of making it a developed country by 2047 can ring hollow for millions of people who have to depend on free food rations and subsidies to be able to barely sustain their lives.

Job Creation: A Persistent Challenge

Employment generation has been a persistent challenge in India because of a complex interplay of factors. First, there is what you could call a demographic dividend mismatch. India has a large, young population entering the workforce each year (estimates vary from 5 to 10 million) but job creation hasn’t kept pace with this growth.

Second, there is often also a mismatch between the skills possessed by job seekers and those required by employers, particularly in emerging sectors. Third, while enrollment rates in educational institutions have improved, the quality of education often doesn’t adequately prepare graduates for the job market.

Also, India’s GDP growth has come mainly from the services sector, which generates less employment than manufacturing. Unlike some other developing countries, India hasn’t seen a massive expansion in labor-intensive manufacturing to absorb its growing workforce. Moreover, increasing automation in various sectors has reduced the need for low-skilled workers in some industries. While these are the most important factors limiting job growth, there are other reasons too such as regional disparities, infrastructure constraints and so on that make it a challenging problem.

All Eyes On the Next Budget

In a few weeks, India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the first Budget of the Modi government’s third term. While many will look for what incentives it has for spurring investment and sustaining the high growth rate, all eyes will be on what steps the government takes to encourage employment generation.

The task is a complex one. India has to enhance and improve the quality of its vocational training programmes and align educational curricula with what is needed by industry whose involvement in the training programmes could be crucial.

India may have the disadvantage of being a late-starter but boosting manufacturing in some sectors by attracting more foreign investment, developing more special tax-incentivised zones, and supporting small and medium enterprises could help. Encouragement of labour-intensive sectors, and a renewed focus on agricultural productivity would also be needed.

To be sure, many of these measures have been tried in the past. For instance, the Modi government introduced the Make In India scheme, which offered incentives to invest in manufacturing, but the results have not been impressive.

The challenge of job creation is a complex and difficult one but without jobs and a tangible improvement in the lives of the average citizen, lofty goals such as Viksit Bharat or becoming the third largest economy could become cruel jokes made at the expense of millions of Indians in the world’s most populous nation.

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Going Will Be Tough for Modi 3.0

‘The Going Will Be Tough & Challenging for Modi 3.0’

By LokMarg

Yash Goyal, a third-year student of law at National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, says he is worried about shrinking job opportunities in the country. His views:

I have fairly low expectations from Modi 3.0 as I believe that it will largely be business-as-usual for the Government. Based on the speeches I have heard and their manifesto, I feel that the Government will largely stick to its previous policies, which I disagree with.

As someone who will be joining the workforce in the coming few years, I am particularly concerned about employment aspects and the economic downturn in recent years. Despite studying at a premier law school that prides itself on, among other things, a stellar employment record, I see my seniors struggling to find jobs, with the unanimous response from employers being – the market is bad. My friends from other sectors have received similar responses generally. There is large-scale anxiety among young persons, especially those who do not have the resources to study abroad, regarding the economy.

This is not limited only to employment, as the wealth gap is slowly worsening as well. While the country reels from a heatwave, the ultra-rich are having pre-wedding celebrations in Italy. There is significant work that needs to be done to ensure that constructive employment is available to people in the rural areas and to the urban poor but the current government seems to not assign much priority to the same. I doubt that much can change without a major shift from its existing policies, but I still hope that some serious work is undertaken on that front.

Furthermore, as a young person who has their political opinions, I fear the shrinking space for dissent in this country. Ever since 2014, political minorities have been on the receiving end of violence, hatred and threats from the majority. This is especially evident in university spaces and the media. Furthermore, the rising hate against queer persons, is concerning.

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The instances of violence and open hostility in everything ranging from housing to employment to general social media discourse creates an environment of hostility for anyone who disagrees with the Government or its homogenising identity of Hindutva. I see no reason or signs that the present Government will deviate from this agenda considering the vast support the Hindu right-wing enjoys throughout the country.

However, I also feel that there is hope in Modi 3.0, except not from the Government itself. Given the split mandate which gave a significant boost to the Opposition and third parties at the cost of the BJP, I expect a return to form for the Parliament and its institutions. Over the past ten years, the Parliament had seen high productivity at the cost of low deliberations. Owing to the BJP numbers, the Lok Sabha had been reduced to a rubber stamp while the Opposition had failed to show its presence. Now, with a stronger presence in the Parliament, I hope that the Opposition is able to force debates on issues of importance and use Parliamentary safeguards to ensure that the Government is not able to get away with whatever it wants to push. With the proposed introductions of a Population Control Bill and a nation-wide Uniform Civil Code, the role of the Opposition becomes all the more important and I hope that they do a strong job in ensuring that Indian democracy remains representative and deliberative.

As told to Deepa Gupta

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Modi Replaced Stones With Computers, Jobs: Shah In J-K

By LokMarg

Highlighting the Modi government’s development push in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday that the Centre had given computers and employment to youth who earlier held stones in their hands.

The Union home minister, who launched development projects of around Rs 1,960 crore in Jammu, was referring to past incidents of stone-pelting which would be frequently reported from the valley.
“After the abrogation of Article 370, people in J-K got benefits from various government schemes. Democracy is strengthened when people welcome the change. It is important to identify the three families of J-K which nurtured separatism instead of development,” Shah said.

He said the central government gave computers and employment to the youth who earlier held stones in their hands.

“Earlier there were stone-pelting incidents. But, no such incidents are there now. We have to understand the change that has come now. We identified those in the administration who were supporting terrorism and rooted them out. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken out ‘Jamhooriyat’ (democracy) from three families in Jammu and Kashmir and has taken it to the people through 30,000 Panchayati raj members,” said Shah.

In the 70 years since independence, the Home Minister said only Rs 15,000 crore were invested in Jammu and Kashmir, but since 2019, an investment of about Rs 56,000 crore has been brought in the erstwhile state.

Shah further said that the youth of J-K will benefit greatly from tourism. He said 50 lakh tourists have visited Jammu and 22 lakh tourists have visited Kashmir in recent months.

“Earlier the delimitation was done only for the benefit of three families. For the first time post Independence, there has been a real delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir now, due to which the people of the hilly region have got their rights,” Shah added.

Shah, who is on a 3-day visit to J-K, reached Jammu Monday evening after which he met people from various communities including Gujjar-Bakarwal, Rajput, Pahari, and Sikhs.

He began his day on Tuesday with a visit to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine in Katra where he offered prayers. Notably, this was Shah’s first visit to the holy shrine after being appointed the Home Minister of the Modi government 2.0.

His visit, during which he was accompanied by Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Union Minister Jitendra Singh, coincided with the ninth day of the ongoing Navratri festival.

Shah is slated to hold a number of crucial meetings including the ones regarding the security situation in the region on Wednesday. He will review the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting that is slated to be held at Raj Bhavan in Srinagar.

LG Manoj Sinha, top officials of the Army, paramilitary forces, state police, and civil administration will take part in this high-level meeting expected to begin at 10 am tomorrow.

Before concluding his visit to the Union Territory, Shah will also launch and lay foundation stones for various development projects in Srinagar tomorrow afternoon. (ANI)

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Employees Provident Fund members

India’s Job Creation Challenge

By Kunal Bose

What are the major concerns of Indians today? According to the December issue of Ipsos, the global market research and public opinion specialist, the three burning headaches of urban Indians are unemployment (41%), financial and political corruption (29%) and coronavirus (29%). These are followed by urban Indian worries about crime and violence (25%) and poverty and social inequality (25%). India is one of the 26 countries that feature in Ispos periodic review of citizens’ perception as to whether the things are moving in the “right direction” or “are they off on the wrong track?”

One can always make an issue of the quality and breadth of the survey sample size and how good are interviewers in engaging interviewees in discussions. Whatever that may be, this work of Ispos has won global recognition and there should be no hesitation in accepting that urban unemployment is hitting growing numbers of people across the country as the third Covid-19 wave in the form of mutant Omicron spreads fast. The curse of people going without work and therefore, drying up of their income is being increasingly manifest in rural areas too.

The job data report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) saying unemployment rate in the country touched a four-month high of 7.91% in December comes as confirmation of popular concern of lack of employment opportunities. It will be poor consolation to say that the country had experienced an unemployment rate of 8.3% in August.

According to CMIE, the urban unemployment rate in December rose to 9.30% from 8.21% in the previous month. In rural areas, unemployment rate during the period was up from 6.44% to 7.28%. Remember people living in rural areas constitute close to 70% of the country’s population. This should give an idea of hardships of rural people without ownership of land. CMIE report says new jobs were created in December, but these were far less than people joining the ranks of jobseekers.

“Around 8.3 million additional people were looking for jobs. However, 4 million jobseekers got employment,” says CMIE managing director & CEO Mahesh Vyas. What is happening on the employment front is not surprising against the background of muted economic activity and consumer sentiment downed by Omicron. From an ill-advised demonetisation that badly hit the informal sector and a fairly large part of building construction activities across the country to clumsy rollout of GST, a number of policies were found to be anti-job growth.

State Bank of India says in a recent report that progress of formalisation of the economy has seen the share of informal sector in GDP falling from 52% in 2017-18 to 15-20% in 2020-21.The report has found that ₹130 million crore has come under the formal economy in the last few years. Formalisation is to be welcomed, for it brings increases in output and turnover by firms, which are liable to pay taxes. Cash intensity of the economy will continue to diminish as the government continues to give thrust to cashless transactions, promote digital payments and kisan credit cards and transfer of all kinds of cash benefits to beneficiary bank accounts.

ALSO READ: Covid Has Deepened India’s Poverty Pit

While all that is good for the economy, the question remains as to what extent job losses in the informal sector have been made good by creation of new jobs in the formal sector. Precise figures are not available. But one can easily guess the privation of people who became redundant in the process of emasculation of informal sector gaining pace since the breakout of Covid-19. No wonder more and more faces of jobless Indians stand frazzled.

The unemployment situation being so critical, New Delhi is pushing profit-making public sector undertakings to take up major capital expenditure programme along with green signalling construction of new highways and other infrastructure projects. At the same time, the banks are encouraged to fund private sector greenfield projects and also its expansion at present operating sites. Infra work is always employment intensive, though not of permanent kind. At the same time, because of high levels of automation and digitisation, investments in manufacturing industries are now generating lesser number of jobs than before.

Let’s consider the ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) announcement to build a massive 24 million tonne (mt) steel plant in Kendrapara district of Orissa (since renamed Odisha) at an investment of over ₹10 million crore. The joint venture company will run the plant permanently employing only 16,000 people. No doubt, the proposed steel plant will create significant indirect employment opportunities several times bigger than direct employment in the mother plant through ancillary and downstream industries and services. But compare the direct employment to be created by AMNS investment at Kendrapara with Tata Steel’s 31,189 people on roll (2020-21 annual report figure). The more than a century old Tata Steel has capacity of 19.6 mt at its three mills at Jamshedpur and Odisha.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik is aware that the state’s rich endowments of mineral resources, including iron ore, coal, chromite manganese ore and bauxite must not only be used to make primary metals such as steel and aluminium but these must be further value added within the state to generate employment for the local people and revenue for his government. That is why at the prodding of Patnaik, the National Aluminium Company and Vedanta Aluminium are building aluminium parks adjacent to their smelters where small and medium units will get liquid metal to make value added aluminium products.

Vedanta Aluminium CEO Rahul Sharma says his company promoted aluminium park will bring in “investment of at least ₹2,000 crore, create an annual incremental economic value of ₹4,500 crore for the state and generate livelihood for more than 10,000 people.” Steel mills and aluminium refineries and smelters in Odisha are found in areas where tribal population is in majority. Ancillaries linked to mother plants and downstream units for value addition to primary metals create many jobs but they need skilled hands. Here the state – in this case Odisha – will have to build institutions in concerned districts to impart skills to tribal and people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribes to be ready to work in factories.

India’s rapidly expanding information technology sector, fintech, which is inviting considerable support from venture capitalists and start-ups mounted on IT are the exceptions where supply of human resources are to fall short of growing requirements for at least the next five years. The country’s largest staffing solutions provider Teamlease says fulltime employee attrition in the technology industry will rise to 22% by March 2022 when attrition in contract staffing will be 49%. Shortages of IT and engineering human resources leading to high rates of job hopping are a global phenomenon that is not going to go away any day soon. At the same time, the problem is manifest more in India and other sourcing countries than destination places such as the US and Europe. In their desperation to retain talents, many Indian employers in IT and e-commerce industries are increasingly resorting to the practice of making better offers to people who have served notice to quit. The practice, however, in many cases is proving counterproductive. With counteroffers in hand, the ones having decided to leave in any case get a handle to strike a better deal with new employers.

The counteroffers could result in demoralisation of performers who are not looking for greener pastures. The competitive bidding game is a no-win practice. Shortages of human resources in the specialised niche sectors call for colleges, universities and IITs to raise capacity to produce larger number of IT experts. At the same time, the IT groups and manufacturing companies digitising their operations will have to have bigger budgets for employee up-skilling.

Union Budget 2020: A Missed Opportunity To Tackle Unemployment

By Sanjoy Narayan

Continued lack of employment opportunities for India’s youth has already led to disaffection among them and that is evident partly from the manner in which student unrest (albeit triggered by the Modi regime’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act) has spread. Half of India’s 1.3 billion people are below the age of 25. This year, it is expected that the average age of an Indian will be 29 years (for China, it will be 37). As education levels rise for young Indians so do their aspiration for good jobs and better standard of living. If employment rates don’t rise their hopes will not be met.

That could be a ticking time bomb. Many believe the countdown to an explosion has already begun. Educated urban youth in India have readily joined the movement against the Citizenship Act, which is being seen as discriminating against the largest minority community in India, Muslims, who constitute more than 14% of Indians. The youth’s opposition to the Act must be seen holistically. It is a symptom of the greater disaffection that young Indians feel. Even as the number of those who graduate from schools and colleges increases, their prospects of landing desirable jobs have diminished. Before long this could be a problem instead of the demographic dividend that a youthful India could benefit from.

In that context, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget has missed a big opportunity. The annual Budget in India has always been a mega economic event in the country. Finance ministers, regardless of which political party they represent, use the exercise, which ought to be a routine balancing of the government’s expenditure and revenue streams, not only as an opportunity to announce the government’s economic policies but also as a podium to offer sops and incentives to different sections of the population—an exercise that is seen as a means to garner electoral support from voters.

ALSO WATCH: Youth Slam Govt Over Lack Of Jobs

As a consequence, the media hype gets heightened and the Budget’s announcement in Parliament becomes a red-letter day for newspapers, TV channels and other publications. In recent years, as the Indian economy has become less regulated; tax structures have become simplified; and government controls on different economic sectors have loosened, the Budget’s importance has declined. It is no longer an event that offers governments a chance for grandstanding or making big announcements for changing policies or ushering in new economic strategies.

The Indian economy has been ailing in recent months. It is probably at the worst low point that has been witnessed in over a decade. Last year, GDP growth rate slumped to 4.8% from 2018’s 6.8%; prices across many categories of products, including food, rose; and sales of consumer products stagnated. Industries, including automobiles, white goods, and other categories held off investment plans as inventories of unsold products built up. The youth—65% of Indians are under 35—were impacted adversely too as estimates of the unemployment rate rose to nearly 8% at the end of 2019.

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In her Budget, Sitharaman announced a series of incentives—personal income tax cuts; bank deposit insurance; and some infrastructure investments—but none of them were designed specifically to increase the potential for generating more employment. Most of India’s youth are based in rural parts of the country. Nearly 66% of Indians live in villages. And while 44% of Indians are employed in agriculture, the sector accounts for a shade over 15% of GDP. Labour productivity in the sector is low and many Indians are what economists call “disguised unemployed”—that is they work on farms but don’t add anything in terms of incremental output.

In fact, it has been argued that if rural youth, ostensibly working on overcrowded farms, get the opportunity to move to other sectors and find work, the productivity of Indian farms could actually go up. But there lies the rub. Where are those alternative jobs? India’s Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, and some of his ministerial colleagues have often stated that India’s youth have opportunities galore in the informal sector—to be small entrepreneurs who are self-employed. Those are facetious statements, designed more to divert attention from the real problem of unemployment than to alleviate it. Otherwise, how does one explain the phenomenon of post graduates and graduates applying in thousands for menial posts such as that of a government department’s peon or a municipality’s sweeper?

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Yet, there may be a kernel of an idea for employment generation in those statements. If the finance minister, in her Budget, had devised incentives for unemployed youth or other budding entrepreneurs to set up small businesses—through liberal grants of seed capital; subsidised land for building small manufacturing or trading establishments; and facilitation for marketing and distribution of products and services—that could lead to heightened entrepreneurial activities. Such incentives, if properly targeted in the rural and semi-urban parts of the country where agriculture or farm-related enterprises could move the rural sector up the value curve, it could see the blooming of millions of tiny, small, and even medium enterprises. In turn each of these enterprises could generate employment—not on a large industrial scale—but in modest numbers. If a tiny enterprise hires even four or five workers, 10,000 of them could hire 50,000 young people. The multiplier effect of such an initiative is easy to conceive.

To be sure, Mr Modi’s government, in its first term (2014-19) flagged off many well-publicised schemes: Skill India, which was aimed at re-skilling young Indians; and Startup India, aimed at handholding and helping entrepreneurs to set up enterprises. None of these has attained the levels of success that were envisaged or promised. If such programmes are conflated into comprehensive opportunities for fresh Indian graduates from schools and colleges and offered to them as they finish their education, particularly in rural and semi-urban India but also in urban areas, they could not only be opportunities for unconventional employment but also serve to build small enterprises by young entrepreneurs that could further employ other young people.

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Some of this is happening informally. But the need of the hour is for India’s government to formalise such activity and make it a widespread movement. The definition of a budget is to balance spending and earning; but in India, budget-making could also be the opportunity for governments to think out of the box and create something that could address what is perhaps the country’s biggest issue—a burgeoning population of young people but a diminishing prospect of finding employment for them. India’s youthful demography is unique. Nowhere in the world are there as many young people as there are in India. The strategy to find opportunities for them has to be equally unique. The Budget for this year offered a platform that could have been used to do just that. Sadly, that opportunity was missed.

Job Market Is Pathetic

#WhereAreTheJobs – ‘Job Market Is Pathetic’

By LokMarg Publishing


I work as a journalist with Radio Dwarka (www.radiodwarka.com), India’s first online Community Radio, an initiative by a group of old media hands in Delhi. According to Wikipedia, community radio stations are operated, owned, and influenced by the communities they serve.  They provide a mechanism for enabling individuals, groups, and communities to tell their own stories, to share experiences and, in a media-rich world, to become creators and contributors of media. In short, it is a mini democracy in action, a media service of the people, for the people and by the people.

As a reporter I try to get an in-depth understanding of issues. I have been able to look at people’s confusions, aspirations and fears from close quarters. And in my opinion, our country is in urgent need of a Universal Basic Income. The employment situation doesn’t look that bright to me.

There are various schemes that have been introduced by the current government to skill people and generate employment. The government’s social media machinery has done a good job publicising these schemes. Youngsters from privileged backgrounds, who probably do not need to avail benefits of government schemes want to participate as volunteers wherever possible. However, the schemes should reach the people from the back of beyond, who really need them the most.  

Perhaps the most talked about business loan scheme is the ‘MSME Business Loans in 59 Minutes’.  Financial assistance of upto Rs 1 crore is given to micro, small and medium enterprises that form the backbone of any economy. MSMEs contribute to around 40 percent of the GDP. A time frame of 8-12 days is taken to verify the credentials of the business, but the actual approval or disapproval is given in 59 minutes flat. It saves one from so much stress.

Some day, I would like to start my own initiative –a community radio for my hometown, Gaya. Gaya has numerous stories in its bag apart from the Mahabodhi temple. The world needs to know about us. I keep updating myself about the various ways in which the government is aiding people, who want to work towards their own businesses.

As about voting in the last elections, yes I had voted for the BJP and my vote will again go to the same party.

Govt Supporting Startups

#MyVote2019 – ‘Govt Supporting Startups’

By LokMarg Publishing


I am not an economic expert and thus can only speak for myself. In my opinion, the employment situation has improved, though the recent report released by NSSO (National Sample Survey Organization) says otherwise. Having said that, to form an opinion about matters as serious and as multi-layered as this, one needs to delve deep into the subject.  

I am happy about the fact that the government has increased the taxable income slab to 5 lakh per annum. I understand that it still needs to be passed in the parliament and as of now is only a proposal, but is a good start nonetheless. The ESIC (Employees’ State Insurance Scheme) amendment that came into effect on January 1, 2017, is also a welcome step for those already in the workforce. After the amendment, the wage limit of employees covered under the scheme went up from Rs 15,000 to Rs 21,000. This new move also included insurance cover for family members of employees.

The current government has definitely created a conducive environment for start-ups with the launch of the Start Up India Scheme launched in 2016. I particularly like the fact that the Mudra Banks Scheme (Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana) provides micro-finance at low-interest rate loans to entrepreneurs from low socioeconomic backgrounds. This means anybody, who has a great idea, irrespective of their socioeconomic background, can dare to dream and take the leap.

As someone, who would love to start his own enterprise, I love to read about how the government is helping turn ordinary people’s ideas into reality through steps such as, creating a Rs 10,000 crore start- up funding pool; reduction in patent registration fees; improved bankruptcy code, to ensure a 90-day exit window; freedom from mystifying inspections for first three years of operation; freedom from Capital Gain Tax for the first three years of operation; and self-certification compliance.

I have heard about the Skill India campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 July 2015 which aims to train over 40 crore people in India in different skills by 2022.

As I mentioned above, even though I currently work as a business analyst, sooner or later I would like to start my own business, or in other words looking forward to being self-employed. Currently I am doing research about what it is that people need, so that my business can help fill the gap in the market.

I did not vote during the last elections, however since 2014 I have begun to take a keen interest in politics and must say I am impressed with the ruling party’s work and would like to vote for them in the upcoming elections.