‘India include wants fewer workers, no more’: Devina Mehra sees a danger for young people
The manufacturing sector of India has plunged to its lowest part of GDP since 1967, triggering urgent concerns concerning the creation of jobs and long -term economic stability.
Devina Mehra, founder of First Global and author of Money, Myths and Mantras: The Ultimate Investment Guide, reported the striking drop in a LinkedIn article, citing the World Bank data showing the contribution of manufacturing GDP fell only 12.6% – a figure not seen since 1967 and even lower than the levels of 1960.
Between 2008 and 2014, manufacturing regularly oscillated between 17% and 17.5%. But two years ago, he fell to 13.5% and continued his slide down. “If we want our young people to become something other than deliveries, we have to focus here,” warned Mehra.
It highlighted a structural problem in the landscape of India companies: “Most large companies want to minimize, and not maximize employment.” She noted a trend of several decades where companies like Essar Steel and Bajaj Auto celebrated new factories for their minimum labor requirements in blue collar.
Instead, the backbone of the use of India is traditionally its MPME – medium, small and micro -enterprises. But these engines generating jobs have flouted. According to the former chief statistician, Dr. Pronab Sen, the number of MPMs has decreased by 10 million since 2016 – a deficit of 20 million when this represents the expected growth. This collapse had an impact directly on employment, especially in the export sectors with a high intensity of labor.
“Real job generators … have made their doors in recent years,” said Mehra, highlighting the vulnerability of MPMs in a difficult economic climate.
Tourism, a potential employment driver outside of manufacturing, remains underdeveloped. Despite the vast natural and cultural assets of India, Mehra notes that the country is struggling to provide a “clean, safe, welcoming and reasonable tourist product”, lagging behind much smaller nations in number of visitors.
With the manufacturing and underperforming tourism, Mehra’s assessment poses a critical question: where will the jobs of India come from?
