Good Job

Several Provisions in the Budget Are a Last-ditch Effort to Boost Employment.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

DURING his election campaign in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to create 10 million new jobs if elected to power. In practice, unemployment has risen marginally under NDA rule, from 4.9 per cent in 2013/14 to five per cent in 2015/16. An estimate by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) says the country added just 3.65 million jobs per year between 2011/12 and 2015/16. Against this, a study by the Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore) professor, Pulok Ghosh – who is also an external advisor to State Bank of India – showed the country will add 7 million people to formal job market in the current financial year, though this has been disputed by a number of experts, including Mahesh Vyas of CMIE. And this is only a fraction of the total manpower that will be available, considering 87 per cent of Indians are employed in the informal sector.