The Indian economy requires 25 million-plus jobs to be generated over the next five years in order to employ all those who are presently unemployed in this nation.
Narendra Modi government has claimed that the Indian economy, judged by GDP, grew at an impressively rapid pace of 8% last year.
But even if that claim is true, it has not created an adequate number of appropriate jobs going by the current unemployment in India.
unemployment rate for people aged 15 years or above may have dipped from 4.2% in 2021 to 3.1% in 2023, but this is not commensurate with the rapid GDP growth rate of 8%.
India’s growth in the last two years has been pushed via a significantly large Budget deficit for funding the government’s massive capital expenditure.
But this has not been done by structural investments in the industrial, agricultural, and service sectors.
During the last decade, this government’s economists have frequently called for the “next generation of reforms” to accelerate national economic growth.
It remains to be seen if this is possible as the BJP has lost its majority in Parliament and its allies do not have the same economic perspective as the BJP.
Moreover, in agriculture, 92% of the jobs are in the unorganised sector.
In industry and services, 73% of the jobs created are in the small- and medium-informal sections.
The government and formal private sector account for a mere 27% of jobs.
Thus, India now needs a new long-term economic strategy — a tall order as the BJP lacks a cohesive majority in Parliament and has no economist to speak frankly to the relevant Ministers.
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