The current Modi government has often been accused of leading the country through a phase of ‘jobless growth’, which in simple words means “even as the economy for a country grows, unemployment remains stubbornly high.” But as per a survey conducted by ‘Confederation of Indian Industry’ (CII), Modi government generated 1.49 crore jobs per year in MSME sector. That’s a whopping 6 crore jobs in the last 4 years. As the CII survey, the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana created the highest number of jobs in the MSME sector.
“Given that the total workforce size according to the labour bureau is estimated at 450 million (projected for 2017-18), the overall job additions work out to 13.5 – 14.9 million per annum,” said the report by CII. This is one of the most comprehensive surveys carried out by any organization in recent time period as it collected data from 1, 05,347 firms. The surveys of ideologically biased private organizations like Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) dealt with a much smaller sample size.
“The survey also indicates optimism on higher growth expectations on employment for the next three years, which emanates from the fact that the government initiatives like the 2% interest rate subvention given to all MSMEs and trade receivables e-discounting system (TReDS) implemented recently would drive future growth leading to more employment,” added the CII survey.
Earlier the data from EPFO revealed that the country has created 2 crore jobs in the last 16 month. Central Statistics Organization (CSO) has released the data of subscribers of social security schemes like Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) and Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) and Employee State Insurance Corporation. 1.96 Crore new subscribers were added to EPFO from September 2017 to December 2018. EPFO covers all the firms which have 20 or more people with salary up to 15,000 rupees per month. ESIC provides insurance cover to companies with 20 or more people with monthly salary up to 21,000 rupees.
“The survey has indeed thrown up the most promising outcomes. There is a very healthy growth in employment among the MSME segment of industry and with the kind of disruptions and innovations that are likely to sweep through industry in terms of new technologies and practices, our skills development front is also undergoing rapid changes,” said Rakesh Mittal, president of CII. The optimism of industrialists is contrary to what has been claimed by the Congress party and other opposition leaders. The ideologically biased organization like CMIE which has long praised the policies of Congress have often published misleading reports to defame the Modi government.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the flagship housing scheme of Modi government created more than 60 lakh jobs from 2015 to 2019. The scheme which was aimed at Housing for all was launched in June 2015 and has created 61.49 lakh jobs so far. The housing for all has been highly successful in urban as well as rural areas. Thousands of people from marginalized sections of society in rural areas got houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The study carried by Housing ministry and National Institute of Public Finance and Policy has created 18.92 lakh direct jobs and 42.57 lakh jobs through indirect effects.