India needs 80 lakh jobs yearly to become a developed nation: Economic advisor
India must generate at least 8 million jobs every year over the next decade to stay on course for its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Saturday.Addressing the Columbia India Summit 2025, held at Columbia University, Nageswaran underlined the imperative to increase job creation and increase the proportion of manufacturing in the GDP of the country.advertisementHe stressed that although India cannot dictate the international environment, it has to work within its limitations to create a robust domestic growth trajectory.
"We have a vision to construct a developed India in the 100th year of independence. But we have to realize that the world around us in the next 10 to 20 years will not be as accommodative as it was in the past," Nageswaran said.He added that new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and robotics could potentially endanger low-skilled and entry-level jobs, rendering job generation a multifaceted endeavor. "We have to achieve the right equilibrium between technology take-up and jobs-led policies," he said.Nageswaran also emphasised the need to build India's small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are critical to expanding the manufacturing base. "No country has made it in manufacturing without a strong SME base," he added.advertisementHe admitted that India's recent growth, at more than 8% during the post-pandemic period, will prove difficult to sustain. "If we can grow at a rate of 6.5% and take it higher through deregulation and reforms, it would be an excellent achievement," he said.As India continues to pursue its 'Viksit Bharat 2047' vision, the CEA emphasized greater integration into global value chains and more emphasis on quality, innovation, and logistics. "Exports will remain important, but we can't depend on them as much as we used to," he stated.
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