NITI Aayog Jumps To Defend Modi’s Jobs Record As Debate Rages
- by Ricky Curtis
- in Money
- — Feb 1, 2019
"We do not know what the unemployment rate is", Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog, told reporters in a hurriedly called press conference here.
The reactions were spurred by a news report of a yet unpublished Periodic Labour Force Survey of the National Sample Survey Office.
The report, revealed a day before the government's Interim Budget, triggered a row just a few months ahead of the Lok Sabha election, due by May.
The government has questioned the report, saying it was "not verified".
Unemployment rate stands at 6.1% in India, according to an official survey done by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).
Kumar said employment data is seasonal and so the comparison of quarterly data has to be on a yearly basis, that is, data for October-December 2018 needs to be compared with October-December 2017 and that this new survey should not be compared with earlier versions of NSSO surveys.
The report said that joblessness stood at 7.8 percent in urban areas compared with 5.3 parts in the countryside.
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It quoted job data from 2017-'18, which was the first full financial year after the government demonetised high-value currency notes in November 2016. "It is a draft report". "Only a man who hasn't ever held a proper job and is totally jobless can peddle such #FakeNews!" "We have still managed to create 7.5 million to eight million jobs".
A political controversy over the survey erupted after the acting chairman and another member of the body that reviewed the jobs data resigned, saying there had been a delay in its scheduled December release and alleging interference by other state agencies.
Citing a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, Mr Kant said a combination of increased government spending, additional IT hiring, and increase in entrepreneurship created gainful employment for 20-26 million people between 2014 and 2017. "We saw (it) during the UPA regime and now this NSSO data shows the same for the current government", said Shyam Sundar.
After the chaotic launch of a national sales tax in July 2017, hundreds of thousands have lost jobs in small businesses.
"The deceleration in real agricultural wages and a real decline in non-agricultural wages not only confirm the worsening demand situation in rural areas but also confirm the lack of job creation in rural areas", the article said.
The gloomy jobs data could be awkward for PM Modi's government to explain with a general election looming and opinion polls already showing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party unlikely to keep its parliamentary majority. The results of the job survey, as reported by the Business Standard, is in sync with another survey done by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, which stated that 11 million Indians lost their jobs in 2018, with rural India taking the worst hit reporting 84% of the job losses.
Mr Surjewala said India does not want a government that has left the future of the youth in jeopardy.
