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India to generate 8 mn jobs per year for next 10-12 years: CEA Nageswaran

2025-04-21 00:00:00.0 商业标准报-经济和政策原网页

India has to generate 8 million jobs per year at least for the next 10-12 years and raise the share of manufacturing in GDP as it strives to achieve the vision of becoming a developed country by 2047, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India V Anantha Nageswaran said.

"We have a vision to achieve a developed India by 2047. The biggest challenge, apart from India's size, is that the external environment is not going to be so benign for the next 10-20 years as one might have had in the last 30 years, starting from 1990 or so, Nageswaran said here Saturday.

But within this context - that's a given, you can't choose your external environment beyond a point - we have to generate 8 million jobs per year at least for the next 10 to 12 years...And raise the manufacturing share of GDP, in the context of China having achieved such a tremendous manufacturing dominance, especially post-COVID, he said.

Nageswaran was addressing the Columbia India Summit 2025 hosted by the Deepak and Neera Raj Centre on Indian Economic Policies at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

He outlined that artificial intelligence, technology, and robotics are challenges that some of the developed countries of today do not have to face in their developmental journey.

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"But India, with its size, has to navigate this huge, complex challenge, and there are no easy answers. If you look at the number of jobs we need to create, it's about 8 million jobs a year. And Artificial Intelligence may have a big role in taking away entry-level jobs, or low IT-enabled services jobs may come under threat, he said.

He added that it is one thing to prepare the population for a world dominated by AI, but it is another thing to ensure that we find the right balance between labour-centric policies and technology, because technology at the end of the day is not just a choice to be made by technologists. It has to be made by public policymakers.

As India moves towards achieving the vision of Viksit Bharat' by 2047, the centennial year of its independence, it has to plug Indian businesses into global value chains as well as create a viable small and medium enterprise sector because manufacturing and MSME both go together. Countries that became manufacturing powerhouses did not do so without having a viable small and medium enterprise sector, he said.

Nageswaran further said that either investment rates have to rise from where they are or we have to make sure that we extract maximum possible juice out of existing investments because global capital flows are also going to be affected by ongoing conflicts between nations." He said that, therefore, it is not that external trade is not going to matter.

"It will matter and we need to focus on that because external competitiveness is also a way to boost domestic innovation, domestic potential growth." "But at the same time, we cannot expect that to contribute the way it did in the first decade, when India averaged 8 to 9 per cent GDP growth between 2003 and 2008. Every year, exports contributed 40% to GDP growth in the first decade, especially pre-crisis. In the second decade, that contribution came down to 20%, and in the third decade it might be even lower, he said.

Nageswaran noted that it is not that India's export competitiveness does not matter.

"It has to be the driving force. One has to get up one's game on quality, R&D and internally on logistics and last-mile connectivity. But from a policy perspective, it will make sense to assume that it will not be so easily possible to extract growth out of exports as we used to do before, he said.

He noted that in the last three years post-Covid, India's growth has averaged more than 8%.

"Obviously, in the current environment, sustaining an 8% growth rate is going to be a very tall order. But if we can maintain growth rates of even 6.5 per cent on a sustainable basis over the next decade or two and look to opportunistically increase it to over 7 per cent by focusing on domestic deregulation, that will be the way to go.

Last week, the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had said India is expected to grow by 6.5 per cent in 2025 on the back of continued robust public spending and ongoing monetary easing, even as the world economy is on a recessionary trajectory, driven by escalating trade tensions and persistent uncertainty.

The day-long event at Columbia was attended by faculty, students, policy experts and economists and the discussion focused on the future of India's economy, innovation and trade.

"The task ahead for India is quite immense in a difficult and challenging global environment, but I think the policy determination and identification of priorities, as we have done with emphasis on deregulation, can enable us to maintain the growth advantage even in this difficult environment, Nageswaran said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Approximately 1.31 million members, who had previously exited EPFO, rejoined in February 2025—an increase of 11.85 per cent year-on-year. “These members switched their jobs and rejoined the establishments covered under the ambit of EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement, thus safeguarding long-term financial well-being and extending their social security protection,” the ministry added. ALSO READ: EPFO set for digital overhaul with new IT platform by May-June: Mandaviya

Youth in workforce

The 18–25 age group remains the largest contributor to new subscriber additions, with 427,000 individuals joining EPFO—representing 57.71 per cent of total new enrollments. “This is in consonance with the earlier trend, which indicates that most individuals joining the organised workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers,” the ministry added.

Additionally, the net payroll addition for the 18–25 age group in February 2025 reached around 678,000, reflecting a 3.01 per cent growth compared to February 2024.

Increase in female participation

EPFO recorded the addition of around 208,000 new female subscribers in February 2025, indicating a 1.26 per cent year-on-year rise. The overall net female payroll addition stood at approximately 337,000, marking a notable 9.23 per cent increase from February 2024.

“The growth in female member additions is indicative of a broader shift towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce,” the ministry said.

State-wise contribution

State-wise analysis shows that the top five states/Union Territories (UTs) contributed approximately 59.75 per cent of the total net payroll additions, accounting for around 962,000 members.

Maharashtra led the way, contributing 20.90 per cent of the total net additions. Other major contributors—each adding over 5 per cent of the net payroll—include Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh.

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