Former VC, NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya said in an interview with ETNOW that under-employment is India’s big problem, not unemployment.
“People are doing very low productivity jobs and that gives them relatively low wages, low living standards and therefore poverty. What we need is higher wages and better living standard” – Arvind Panagariya
- Arvind Panagariya in an interview called under-employment a bigger problem than unemployment in India.
- He targeted Congress over not following pro-growth policies properly.
- He defended the credibility of Indian data and called it a propaganda by our own “cynical economists”.
Meanwhile India’s unemployment breaks record
The recent survey report from NSSO showed India’s unemployment rate stood at 6.1%. The economy also saw its slowest growth in the last 17 quarters, 5.8%. Although the government used the new design and metric as an excuse to not compare it with the past rates.
The under-employment is a serious issue for our country with such a high poverty rate, but the issue of unemployment cannot be taken lightly.
The under-employment is a serious issue for our country with such a high poverty rate, but the issue of unemployment cannot be taken lightly. A country where a master’s degree holder is applying for the job of clerk is nowhere near the development track. But it’s the unemployment which causes people to do jobs for which they are overqualified. Blaming previous governments is not something our nation expects from a government in their 2nd tenure. Now, it should be the priority of the government to tackle both unemployment and under-employment issues appropriately.