India needs job creation strategy like China: Economic Survey

Unemployment has been one of the major issues prevailing in India since many years, which has hit to the highest in the last four to five decades. As per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate in India as in December 2019 stood at 7.7 per cent with the highest level of unemployment being among the urban youth. The percentage of unemployment is majorly seen in the age group of 24 to 29 years, as the data shows that 32.59 per cent of them are unemployed. The number has doubled since 2016, from 79.7 lakh to 1.5 crore being unemployed in the past three years.

The recent Economic Survey 2019-2020, has thrown some light on the job creation opportunities in India. As per the survey, India has an extraordinary opportunity for exports of labour intensive sectors. Exports of network products can provide 25 per cent increase in value-added services required for making India a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

By integrating ‘Assemble in India for the world’ into Make in India, India can raise its export market share to about 3.5 per cent by 2025 and six per cent by 2030. Also, India can create four crore well-paid jobs by 2025 and eight crore by 2030.

To grab this opportunity, the survey has suggested a strategy, similar to the one used by China. The strategy includes:

• Specialising in labour-intensive sectors, especially network products on a large-scale

• Have laser-like focus on enabling assembling operations at a massive scale in network products

• Export primarily to markets in rich countries

• The trade policy must be an enabler

The survey has provided a data showing an impact of India’s trade agreements on the overall trade balance. India’s exports increased 13.4 per cent for manufactured products and 10.9 per cent for total merchandise while, imports increased by 12.7 per cent for manufactured products and 8.6 per cent for total merchandise. India gained 0.7 per cent increase in trade surplus per year for manufactured products and 2.3 per year for the total merchandise.

India being the second most-populated countries in the world, millions of new labours come in the market for whom, creating new job opportunities is a significant challenge for the Indian government. However, if the strategy is implemented as per the survey, the employment rate will rise, leading to a higher consumption and in turn, would also boost the economy.