Onus Now On Wealth Creators

In tackling the tricky issue of generating jobs, the Finance Minister has passed the baton on to the ‘wealth creators’

- Jyotsna Sharma

THE DEMAND FOR JOBS was probably the most strident of all the pleas made to the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government over the last five years. The very demographic dividend that India prides itself on – the vast population of youth – also stare at a future where jobs are scarce. Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data pegs unemployment at 7.8 per cent, with urban India much the worse for wear at a scary 8.2 per cent unemployment rate. Joblessness in rural India is close behind at 7.6 per cent.

In the run-up to the Union Budget, BW Businessworld picked the minds of economists and decision-makers on the jobs crisis. Ajit Ranade, President and Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group, summed up the views of a myriad voices when he said, “The economy is not creating adequate jobs, and that is a big concern. We need more than 10 million new jobs to be created every year for many years to come. That means we also need to create more than one lakh new enterprises every year. That puts the focus on ease of creating, doing and closing business. This should be a big policy focus.”