PM Narendra Modi sets up task force to expedite policies on employment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set up a task force under the chairmanship of the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Dr Arvind Panagriya with Labour Secretary M Sathiyavathy, Secretary Statistics Dr TCA Ananth, Prof Pulak Ghosh of NITI Aayog and Shri Manish Sabharwal (Member RBI Board) as members on employment data. 

The task force will recommend solutions which can be implemented in a time bound manner. PM Modi has directed that this task be expedited so that policies on employment can be formulated with a proper appreciation of impacts, based on credible data.

​India suffers from a lack of reliable, timely data on employment which had made it difficult for policy makers and independent observers to assess the extent of employment generation at different points of time.

Some data is being collected and published by certain agencies including the Labour Bureau, but the coverage remains very small.  The Labour Bureau data covers only a few sectors and the methodology is not based on updated panel of survey respondents.  

The net result has been that both policy making and analysis are conducted in a vacuum. This task force is expected to bridge that gap.