Three years in power, Modi goes after states to create jobs to fulfill promise

One of the main agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to create jobs now. He is asking states how much jobs they can create whenever there is some proposal made in the cabinet.

Modi government is going to complete three years on May 26 and they want to fulfil their promise of creating one crore jobs.

For this, Modi is going after states and asking them to push employment generation to the centre of policymaking and project conceptualisation.

“Every proposal that entails some expenditure must lead to job creation and needs to include a jobs estimate. The prime minister asks in every cabinet meeting 'what jobs are going to be created?' when a proposal comes up for discussion,” India’s Trade Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told ET.

Modi has always pitched India as a young nation with 65% of the population below 35 years of age. He has maintained India has a huge domestic market to feed and the country has great human potential and natural resource.

To meet its goals, the Indian government will review its manufacturing policy to align it with its job-creation goals. The Skill India programme is already going great and it will be redrawn to ensure that those entering the workplace market are ready to take on their new jobs.

Even Niti Aayog has come up with a three-year action plan that entails developing coastal employment opportunities besides identifying steps for individual sectors with potential for job creation such as tourism, gems and jewellery, apparel, leather and footwear.

As per the employment survey of the labour and employment ministry, the estimated employment in eight sectors including manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants and IT/ BPO (information technology/business process outsourcing) stands at 20.52 million in the country. Of this, manufacturing is the largest employer with the highest share at 49% followed by education at 24%. Construction accounts for the least at 1.79% and transport has a 2.8% share.