DNA SPECIAL: Govt will create 3.9 crore jobs this year, says Manish Kumar

While the Modi govt is under fire over employment issues as 2019 polls inch closer, the Skill ministry disclosed that this year, there will be 3.9 crore jobs on offer against all the allegations made by the Opposition.

Talking exclusively to DNA, CEO & MD of Skill Development Corporation Manish Kumar said these jobs will be created in both, informal and formal sectors, as projected by a data analytics study conducted by the body.

"We have done analytics which has thrown up some surprising results. We have taken data from past years, and this is RBI and CMI data, using which we have tried to check to what extent has investment above one crore been made by people. We are trying to understand how investment in one year would project into jobs next year. The economy is moving upward and the GDP is also growing so we have factored that too. In this model, according to our computation, a job demand of 3.9 crore will be created in 2018," Kumar told DNA.

"If you compare China and India in 1980, we were largely at the same level of growth; China was actually somewhat at a lower plinth, both being poor. Now it started growing in the 1980s and will continue to till 2020 when it will stop growing. This is a 40-50 year period that matters for a country immensely when the demographic dividend is in the positive. This is s historical cycle. Now India is in the same phase where a lot of people are young and this is the period in any country when wealth is created," Kumar said.

Kumar said that any economy grew in terms of three factors: labour, technology and capital. "Capital and technology we might have, but labour is where one can bring productivity changes. Skill development is an actor which influences this factor. Skill also influences technological change as good skilled labour will lead to new technology and adaptation to new technology."

Skilling was being addressed to create a supply of such labour, Kumar argued, which could be employed when the demand was created.

"While people generally talk about some 6 or 7 or 8 million jobs, these only refer to those in the formal sector and people generally do not consider those in the informal sector. This latest figure contains both types of jobs," Kumar said.

China was on the decline while India was on the rise, Kumar said, as the process of the demographic advantage had started in 2005, to be continued till 2050 roughly. "Next would be Africa. For us then this period becomes critical."