New Delhi: Earlier this week, Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran said that the government cannot solve all social and economic problems like unemployment.
“In the normal world, it is the commercial sector which needs to do the hiring,” the CEA said.
He added that growing investments are going to create more job opportunities during the decade.
While the current government has spoken of a better investment environment and more jobs, it appears preposterous for the CEA to suggest that the government cannot solve the issue of joblessness.
However, let’s acknowledge that while governments can implement policies to spur job creation, they cannot guarantee full employment for every individual in the economy. But more investments lead to the requirement of more labour, and hence, more jobs.
However, don’t these events call for significant attention on the issue? Several Indians are desperate to go to a war-torn country as they can’t find work here; unpaid labour and self-employment – which often do not offer stable income – are on the rise; and around 60 million workers have returned to jobs in agriculture, as a result of job losses in other sectors.
With the help of data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), let’s take a look at how government and private sector investments have panned over the last few decades.
In 2014-15, 1,339 government projects were announced (see Chart 1), which increased to 1,892 in 2018-19, and 1,637 in 2022-23. However, only 322 government projects were completed in 2014-15, and 816 and 883 projects in 2018-19 and 2022-23, respectively (see Chart 2).
In 2014-15, 1,383 private sector investments (only Indian) were announced (see Chart 1), which increased to 2,283 in 2018-19 and 1,567 in 2022-23. However, only 496 projects were completed in 2014-15, 796 in 2018-19 and 917 in 2022-23 (see Chart 2).
(Chart 1)As Chart 3 shows, 2022-23 saw the highest number of government investment projects being dropped in the last few decades. Over 1,100 projects were dropped in that year. Private sector investments have also been consistently dropping over the last few decades.
While seven government projects were stalled in 2022-23, 30 were stalled in 2018-19 and 49 in 2014-15. Nine private sector investment projects stalled in 2022-23, 17 in 2018-19 and 93 in 2014-15 (see Chart 4).
