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Despite a roaring economy, India is in the middle of an employment crisis: In a country with the world’s largest and youngest workforce, there are very few good jobs to be had. To maintain its economic momentum through consistently high GDP growth, India needs to produce more jobs and move a greater proportion of its workforce into higher productivity sectors. Failure to do so would result not only in depressed incomes and slowdown in consumer demand, it would also add to future political instability, social unrest, and a waste of the country’s much-vaunted “demographic dividend.” The government should consider five policies: 1) develop more coherent policies around manufacturing, 2) double down on services, 3) re-start startup India, 4) resolve tensions around the green transition, and 5) enhance and improve the labor supply.
In a year when democracy worldwide is being put to the test like never before, India conducted a peaceful election — the largest in human history. But, looking ahead, there’s a surprising contradiction in the Indian economic and political outlook right now. On the one hand, the economy’s on a tear, growing 7.8% in the 2023–24 fiscal year — outpacing the average 3.4% growth for G20 countries and 4.1% for all emerging markets. But on the other hand, India is in an employment crisis: In a country with the world’s largest and youngest workforce, there are very few good jobs to be had.
Source : Harvard Business