IITians urged to be job creators rather than job seekers

The youth have to turn into entrepreneurs if India’s massive demographic dividend is to be taken advantage of: Smriti Irani.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Senior Union ministers on Wednesday urged students and alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi to be job creators rather than job seekers.

Textile Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha addressed the “My India @ 2022” programme organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF), in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry, as part of the 33rd India Economic Summit (IES).

Irani said about 800 million Indians are below the age of 35 years.

“The youth have to turn into entrepreneurs if India’s massive demographic dividend is to be taken advantage of.”

She added an upward mobile population and growing opportunities have resulted in many young people giving up the profession of their ancestors, such as handloom weaving. “This is a massive loss in cultural heritage.”

Irani also discussed some of the plans of her ministry, which was focusing on small and medium enterprises to make up the bulk of the textile sector.

The ministry will also take 15 national banks to 400 clusters to help workers in the sector open bank accounts.

Jayant Sinha said the government was focusing on jobs growth.

“In the past three years India has been witness to Reforms 3.0,” he said.

“This is the third wave of major reforms in the economy since liberalisation in 1991 and those initiated by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.”

The third panelist was Hari S Bhartia, founder and co-chairman of the Jubilant Bhartia group. He said technological disruptions were churning the job market like never before.

“I have 1,100 pizza outlets. Now, most orders are placed online. As a result, we don’t need two people receiving calls anymore. That’s a loss of 2,200 jobs,” he said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will be attending the summit.