India needs 100 million jobs in next 10 years, say experts

The country needs 100 million jobs in the formal sector in the next decade to take advantage of its demographic dividend.

Also, it should get into the global supply chain to generate many of those by negotiating trade deals effectively, industry players and experts have said.

“We need something like 100 million jobs in the next 10 years, which means that the non-agriculture sector has to generate 14 per cent job growth every year,” said Aditya Ghosh, co-founder of Akasa Airlines, at the Global Economic Policy Summit organised by the CII.

Even as he comes from the services sector, Ghosh said the tertiary sector is not going to be the one which is going to generate most of these 100 million jobs.

“Manufacturing and formal sector manufacturing have to be big focus areas for job generation,” he added.

He pointed out that 50 per cent of the formal salaried class had to move to the self-employed or casual labour due to Covid.

To bring them back to the formal sector is a massive challenge, he said.

Tata Chemicals chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) R Mukundan said, “Most people see job growth as devoid of our trade policy, but I think these are inter-linked.”

He said India needs to be linked to the global supply chain, which will create a lot more employment.

Rana Hasan, regional economic advisor, South Asia, at Asian Development Bank, said the issue of protectionism and automation as a deterrent for job generation are overstated.

Puneet Chhatwal, MD and CEO, Indian Hotels, said there are huge opportunities to not only create jobs in the tourism sector but also position the sector globally.

Preetha Reddy, executive vice-chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, said with BYJU’s like companies in India, e-learning should be tapped to strategise skill training to generate employment in the health sector.