How can India escape Robin Hoodesque fate of taxing urban India to prop-up rural India
The Financial Express A revised estimate of the labour market in 2022 finds 500 million Indians could still be dependent on agriculture India’s consumption story is predicated upon the millennial and post-millennial demographic performing productive, paying jobs. A revised forecast of India’s labour market by 2022E is sobering: half-a-billion people are expected to be dependent on agriculture, contributing to only a ninth of the GDP. The pace of transition is not encouraging—we examine the implications of this on urbanisation, inequality and women empowerment, among other factors. A review of 24 industry reports commissioned by the National Skills Development Council (NSDC) and their comparison with similar reports that NSDC had put together around the end of the last decade shows a sharp fall in overall expected job creation. The earlier forecast expected to see 654 million working Indians by 2022E, this number is now lower at 575 million. The earlier estimate pegged Indians em...