Is PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ failing? Manufacturing jobs rose by 0.1% from April to October in 2016

Given that these eight sectors employ over two crore workers, the total addition to the work force was merely half a per cent of the total

By: News Desk |
March 30, 2017 1:45 pm

The Narendra Modi government may have promised to create 50 million jobs by 2020 but so far, it has failed to keep it, at least, its own report says so. Just over 1 lakh jobs were added from April 1–October 1 in eight key non-farm sectors of the economy, according to third quarterly employment report of the government of India. The eight important sectors range from manufacturing and construction to IT/BPO, education and health. Given that these eight sectors employ over two crore workers, the total addition to the workforce was merely half a per cent of the total.

But what is more worrying is that jobs in the manufacturing sector that account for 50 per cent of the total workforce of these eight sectors just saw an addition of 12,000 jobs—a rise of 0.1 per cent. Given the kind of push Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made for ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’ programmes, the result has been far from satisfactory. Also, manufacturing is considered the back bone of non-farm economy.

Last year, the government expanded the ambit of its study with inclusion of new sectors resulting in a sample size of over 10,000 establishments. The report not only points out the slow pace of recruitment but also highlights that aggregate figures hide more severe upheavals. Almost three-quarters of 1.09 lakh new jobs added are confined to two sectors, education and health, which added 82,000 new jobs.

Also, a government data regarding the recruitment in central government jobs presented in the Lok Sabha showed that the total appointments made through direct recruitment by central government ministries and departments have plummeted to 15,877 in 2015, which is a decline of 89 per cent from 1,51,841 in the year 2013.