Tackling unemployment
Unemployment is a serious social issue and may lead to crime, violence and political unrest unless tackled on a war footing. Government (state and centre) should not attempt to solve this issue by increasing the number of government jobs, particularly since this government has been promoting the concept of less government and better governance (though without much evidence of moving in this direction).
Here is an action plan that may be useful to kick start Indian economy by creating manufacturing capacity and absorbing skilled workers.
1. Identify specific products for fulfilling basic needs in all possible fields including armaments manufacture.
2. Commission design teams from government labs to design prototypes. (These labs cover almost every conceivable field but their successes so far remain less than apparent.)
3. Successful public/professional private sector companies must be given the responsibility for prototype manufacturing, evaluation, improvement and mass manufacture preferably in greenfield factories.
4. Set up medium scale ancillary industries within manufacturing parks, which would be the key to providing jobs close to the manufacturing centre and arrange for supply of quality raw materials to these industries.
5. Identify banks for capital financing and working capital loans for the ancillaries. Provide mechanism for individual small investors to participate in specific medium scale industries as part owners (limited to 5%) who will participate financially without going through the highly volatile stock market.
6. Provide support for these medium scale industries in Incorporation, financial management, setting up production and quality systems, accounting practices, compliance machinery and standardised IT assets through qualified professionals and various institutes of management / engineering.
7. Ensure administrative support to ward of undesirables like self-styled labour leaders by banning union activities (on lines similar to tech parks).
8. Set up a mechanism to ensure prompt payments for supplies made (because many medium industries die due to fund flow constraints caused by delay in payments for products supplied).
9. Set up these industrial/tech parks in less developed areas to provide employment for nearby communities while at the same time developing infrastructure to support them (skill training, power, roads, water, communication).
10. Prevent all political and official interference for private gains in the affairs of these medium scale industries including forced political donations.
Concrete steps and political will are needed to improve ease of doing business. At the same time, entrepreneurs must also be sensitised to the need for law-abiding behaviour and not try to evade taxes and other government levies or indulge in fraudulent practices in their own long term interest. more
Here is an action plan that may be useful to kick start Indian economy by creating manufacturing capacity and absorbing skilled workers.
1. Identify specific products for fulfilling basic needs in all possible fields including armaments manufacture.
2. Commission design teams from government labs to design prototypes. (These labs cover almost every conceivable field but their successes so far remain less than apparent.)
3. Successful public/professional private sector companies must be given the responsibility for prototype manufacturing, evaluation, improvement and mass manufacture preferably in greenfield factories.
4. Set up medium scale ancillary industries within manufacturing parks, which would be the key to providing jobs close to the manufacturing centre and arrange for supply of quality raw materials to these industries.
5. Identify banks for capital financing and working capital loans for the ancillaries. Provide mechanism for individual small investors to participate in specific medium scale industries as part owners (limited to 5%) who will participate financially without going through the highly volatile stock market.
6. Provide support for these medium scale industries in Incorporation, financial management, setting up production and quality systems, accounting practices, compliance machinery and standardised IT assets through qualified professionals and various institutes of management / engineering.
7. Ensure administrative support to ward of undesirables like self-styled labour leaders by banning union activities (on lines similar to tech parks).
8. Set up a mechanism to ensure prompt payments for supplies made (because many medium industries die due to fund flow constraints caused by delay in payments for products supplied).
9. Set up these industrial/tech parks in less developed areas to provide employment for nearby communities while at the same time developing infrastructure to support them (skill training, power, roads, water, communication).
10. Prevent all political and official interference for private gains in the affairs of these medium scale industries including forced political donations.
Concrete steps and political will are needed to improve ease of doing business. At the same time, entrepreneurs must also be sensitised to the need for law-abiding behaviour and not try to evade taxes and other government levies or indulge in fraudulent practices in their own long term interest. more
Viewed by 1609
View all 27 comments Below 27 comments
Controlling of unemployment figures in a complex social and secular economy like that of India is "easier said than done". "Reservations" undoubtedly slow down this process. But this factor can also not be neglected. Were we a society of evenly educated people, like e.g. in the western european countries, things would be easier to manage. Today, efforts are in process towards uplifting the so-called "downtrodden" to levels of competence.....mandatory for an ideal democracy. The process of development may get slowed down on this path, but it would be helpful in the long run. So, the slogan should be to "educate our children" to read and write, so that they are able to understand what's going on in the country and are able to make independent decisions on where they wish this country to more forward. That's democracy..... more
Aug 23
The problem is no doubt complex but we must start somewhere with a solution and with the mindset that all problems have a solution.
Education is important at a basic level (the 3 R's). But skills are more important to solve unemployment. Today much of our college education is pretty much useless from employability point of view. We must understand that everyone is not created with equal competence in everything. Opportunity must be given to every child to do what they are good at and contribute to society. more
Education is important at a basic level (the 3 R's). But skills are more important to solve unemployment. Today much of our college education is pretty much useless from employability point of view. We must understand that everyone is not created with equal competence in everything. Opportunity must be given to every child to do what they are good at and contribute to society. more
Aug 24
To Mr. Basant Bhatia: Like everything else in India, the government's skill development initiatives too were exploited by the unscrupulous. There were cases where subsidies were claimed with a list of people whose Aadhar numbers were provided for the claim without any actual training imparted. So much for private sector participation. As to the IT sector: Our IT giants are nothing but glorified sweatshops relying on outsourcing jobs from US, the artificially manipulated exchange rates and low Indian labour costs to make profits. Why don't they develop software for Indian government and Industry instead? Why don't they establish data centres for localised data control? Why not make good quality mobile apps? more
Aug 22
What happened to the 'Skill Development Program' of the Govt. Perhaps it was conceived after proper analysis of the skills required in different industries. If these industries can't offer jobs, are people with adequate skills not available? Or, enough has not been done to improve the financial position of these industries to be able to create jobs. What exactly has been done to create demand on the products manufactured by these industries? What concessions have been announced to reduce GST, Income Tax etc. and to provide interest free/ low interest loans to these industries? In brief, what is the incentive to the businessman/ industrialist to create more jobs? Do they know about it? In my opinion, there is no comprehensive planning to look into all aspects related to generation of demand & rewarding those who create jobs. I personally feel that enough jobs can be created in the IT sector if there is focus on improving the 'English Writing/ Speaking Skills' of those who acquire degrees in Computer software. No University/ College/ Institution is focused on this aspect. And if the demand on these small software companies comes from Govt Deptts, who fund them to grow and meet their varied needs, it helps the business entities to create jobs for lakhs of software engineers who are sitting idle today. But if the Govt wants only the big size software companies/ business houses to meet the needs of Govt Deptts, no worthwhile job creation can take places. This is because the big companies merely drain out the small units of their talent and do not permit them to grow. The CII, NASSCOM and other regulatory/ advisory bodies are fully aware that they, at present, are not doing enough for the growth of micro/ small software companies, but for reasons best known to Govt or to themselves, they don't want to correct this abberation. As a consequence the small companies in the software sector are slowly fading away. To build new India, we have to bid good bye to our vested interests and make an honest attempt to holistically work for the growth of those companies/ business verticals which have a potential to create jobs, without the need of waiting for 1 - 2 years to develop skills. The need for job creation is URGENT and the planning can not be postponed. more
Aug 21
To reply to Padamji's question 'What is Employment?': Employment is a relationship between two parties, usually based on a contract where work is paid for, where one party, which may be a corporation, for profit, not-for-profit organization, co-operative or other entity is the employer and the other is the employee. Employees work in return for payment, which may be in the form of an hourly wage, by piecework or an annual salary, depending on the type of work an employee does or which sector they are working in. This definition is from Wikipedia. However, I would consider any activity which contributes to the Gross domestic product (GDP) of a country as employment. Therefore my view of employment would include people who are self employed as well as those who are businessmen whose activities result in earnings for their own sustenance. Unfortunately home-makers whose activities are absolutely necessary for their own families to sustain and thrive do not get covered in these definitions . But in this post, I had specifically considered people who fit in the first definition; that is those receiving wages or equivalent from an employer in return for their work towards production of goods or services since a majority of the population would fall under this category. more
Aug 21
The local authorities/Banks should not create any hurdle to the person , who ever starts any legal business. Non meaningful documents asking and then bribe in the absence of that. more
Aug 20
