At a job fair in Kochi, Kerala, in 2023
| Photo Credit: The Hindu/THULASI KAKKAT

The Union Budget has been presented, and this is the right time to outline the three kinds of jobs this writer believes India must create. Beyond reviving private consumption in urban areas, we must continue to strengthen long-term job creation and real wage growth across India.

The 2024 Budget had introduced Employment Linked Incentives (ELI) under the Prime Minister’s five-scheme initiative, designed to create over four crore jobs over five years with a central outlay of ₹2 lakh crore. The Prime Minister’s internship scheme saw significant traction in 2024, with 6.21 lakh applications for 1.27 lakh opportunities. The outcomes on the rest four — beyond a draft Cabinet note on ELI and meetings by DPIIT with the Ministry of Labour and CII, remain to be seen. But there must be more deliberation on the kind of jobs we wish to create for a Viksit Bharat.

Impact of climate change

First, climate-resilience. India was the seventh most-affected country by climate change in 2019, having suffered an income loss of $159 billion in 2021, and according to the Reserve Bank of India, will face adaptation costs of nearly $1 trillion by 2030. The impact on agricultural and labour productivity and also livelihoods requires exponentially higher levels of funding for building rural and urban adaptation capabilities and the rejuvenation of local ecosystems to boost job creation.

To meet the net-zero targets by 2070, the Government must create and incentivise jobs which are “climate-resilient” by maximising all “co-benefits” (IPCC). This could mean providing three to four state-subsidised e-rickshaws in about 6,00,000 villages to create about two million jobs (focused on women drivers), also improving last-mile mobility. Or, there can be new ways to enable private investment in compressed biogas plants to bridge the gap of 82 plants set-up versus the target of 5,000 set (for FY23-24) in 2018. Or, even accelerating achieving the 500GW non-fossil energy capacity target to create over one million jobs, with stronger support for decentralised and rooftop solar which can be seven times more labour-intensive (CEEW).

On AI resilience

Second, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-resilience. With the rise of generative AI, numerous jobs now have 50-plus% automation potential. Scenarios by McKinsey Global Institute show that 50% of automation adoption in India can happen in the next 10 years. India’s IT and business services, which comprised 70-plus% of services exports (Economic Survey 2021), hope to create millions of skilled talent exports. But their employment potential can be limited in the gen AI-era as labour gets costlier relative to capital. With the launch of metaGPT simulating software companies, AI writing 25% of Google’s code, and layoffs due to chatbots even in India, new jobs will also need to prioritise physical engagement and utilise our human ‘creativity’, which this writer terms as AI-resilience. This can take the form of larger education and health budgets to plug the deficit of millions of healthcare professionals and teachers across states or dedicated financing for the National Rural Livelihood Mission to facilitate global and urban market linkages of local products, crafts, and knowledge of farmers and artisans in rural India.

Being aspiration-centric

Third, being aspiration centric. Despite their growing engagement with the startup culture, rural youth continue to have low confidence due to deeper insecurities from poor foundational education (this includes English) and resource-deprived upbringing. This can reinforce dependency on government jobs and ‘coaching’ to ‘crack’ entrance exams. As their aspirations are shaped by their socio-economic backgrounds, digital media, and interaction of the ‘Samaaj, Sarkaar, and Bazaar’, the slow growth of non-farm jobs warrants off-farm job-creation which responds to these dynamic aspirations.

This can take the form of rapid infrastructure development such as building around 70,000 integrated pack-houses, plugging the 95-plus% infrastructure gap, to create over two million jobs. Or, boosting productivity and value-addition for high import/export-share items and tech-enabled local manufacturing of agri-inputs. Greater use of tech, social media, and rebranding the ‘rural’ can also help make off-farm jobs aspirational for India’s youth. One clear avenue is accelerating the ‘National Mission on Edible Oils – Oilseeds’ to reduce India’s 57% import-dependence of edible-oil back to the pre-WTO levels with the revitalised rural processing of native oilseeds like soybean, sunflower (about 40% of edible-oil imports), and boosting retail of in-vogue cold-pressed oils. Enabling creation of many such large-scale businesses with private-public partnerships and investments, can address economic aspirations of our disheartened youth protesting examination leaks and low recruitment vacancies.

While tax relief may temporarily boost urban consumer demand, amidst growing household indebtedness and suboptimal private investment trends, the Centre can demonstrate greater commitment for long-term structural reforms which create these climate-resilient, AI-resilient and aspiration-centric jobs. Many opportunities exist as we embark towards our shared vision of a Viksit Bharat.

Saubhagya Raizada is an independent policy researcher based in Delhi and has a Masters in Public Policy from the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

New Delhi:

The government on Thursday rolled out the internship programme on a pilotbasis that will provide a total annual financial assistance of Rs 66,000 to those in the age group of 21-24 years, and aim to cover onecrore youth overfiveyears.

Under the pilot project, which is estimated to cost around Rs 800 crore, the internship will start on December 2 and expects to cover 1.25 lakh candidates in the current financial year ending March 2025, government sources said on Thursday.

Announced in the Union Budget 2024, the Prime Minister’s InternshipScheme in Top Companies will also provide insurance coverage to interns.

The scheme will be implemented through the online portal ‘www.pminternship.mca.gov.in’ developed by the corporate affairs ministry.

Apart from the monthly financial assistance of Rs 5,000 for oneyear, there will be a one-time grant of Rs 6,000 for the interns, the sources said.

From October 12 to 25, candidates can register with minimum data in the portal and the applicants will be shortlisted on October 26.

Later, candidates will be selected by companies from October 27 to November 7. Then, the selected candidates will have time from November 8 to15 to accept the offer, the sources said.

Up to three offers will be made to a candidate.

The top 500 companies for the scheme have been identified on the basis of their average CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) expenditure in the last three years.

The ministry has partnered with government-owned BISAG-N to run the project.

The internship will be for 12 months. The interns will be provided financial assistance of Rs 5,000 per month and out of the total amount, Rs 4,500 will be disbursed by the government and Rs 500 will be paid by the company from its CSR funds.

Also, a one time grant of Rs 6,000 for incidentals will be disbursed by the ministry to each intern, upon joining the place of internship.

Expenses associated with the training of interns under the scheme will be borne by the company from its CSR funds. The financial assistance amount will be transferred directly to the accounts of the interns.

The participation of companies in the scheme is voluntary and an internship will be offered for 12 months, with at least half of the period to be spent in the actual job environment and not in the classroom.

Existing reservations will be applicable in selecting the candidates under the scheme, the sources said and emphasised that the scheme is only for providing internships and not for jobs.

For now, as many as 1,077 offers have been made by three companies — Alembic, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Max Life Insurance, the sources said.

They also said the states as many as seven districts in four states have been covered so far — one district each in Telangana and Uttarakhand, two districts in Gujarat and three districts in Maharashtra.

There will be nodal persons at the companies participating in the scheme for redressal of issues.

Subject to certain conditions, youth aged between 21 and 24 years will be eligible for the scheme, the sources said.

Insurance coverage will be provided to each individual intern under insurance schemes of the Union government, PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and PM Suraksha Bima Yojana. The premium amount in this regard will be offered by the government.

The sources said a negative list has been prepared with respect to those who will not be eligible to participate in the scheme. These include candidates from families where any of their family members has an annual income of more than Rs 8 lakh for 2023-24.

Through the portal, the sources said, partner companies can offer internship opportunities.

Any other company/ bank/ financial institution can participate in the scheme with the approval of the ministry, which will take into consideration factors like sectors and areas under-represented by the top 500 companies.

As part of the eligibility criteria, sources said, candidates enrolled in online/ distance learning programmes are eligible to apply.

Candidates who have passed High School, Higher Secondary School, possess a certificate from an ITI, hold a diploma from a Polytechnic Institute, or are graduates with degrees such as BA, B.Sc, B.Com, BCA, BBA and B.Pharma will be eligible for the scheme, the sources said.

Partner companies will have a dedicated dashboard on the portal where they can post internship opportunities, detailing location, nature, required qualifications, and any facilities provided.

Eligible candidates may register on the portal, where their details will be used to generate a resume.

Candidates can browse internships based on their preferred sectors, roles, and locations and apply for up tofive opportunities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)