Sunday, August 13, 2006

People don't eat GDP figures!


Madhukar Shukla says there are two ways of looking at the recent trends in India's workforce/employment scene, and points to a misplaced emphasis in government policy on 'employment generation':

Much of our policy, interventions and thrust is focused on the assumption that the "employment/job-creation" solution lies in "big business" (creation of SEZs, FDIs into sectors, incentives to big private sector players, etc.).

Without underestimating the contribution of the "big" private corporate in the organised sector to growth of economy/GDP, etc., the fact still remains that the big, private players merely contributes to 2.5% of India's employment. Even if this sector grows by 30%/annum over the next 5 years, it will actually contibute to less than 1% growth to the employment!!

He hastens to add here parenthetically:

([N]ow before someone pounces on this statement, please let me clarify: "real" people in a society do not eat GDP figures or "feel-good" statistics - they need a gainful employment) [bold emphasis in the original]

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