India faces the problem of under-employment and an unsatisfactory job scenario more than unemployment as the young generation has higher aspirations compared to what is on the ground, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Wednesday. And, he said, there is a challenge to create a balance in this ‘turbulent time’ of increasing technological intervention and employment generation.
“We must be cognizant of the fact that India is competing or moving on an economic transition in a very-very turbulent time. You have an emerging trend of automation, robotisation, artificial intelligence (AI) on one hand and employment generation on the other. And therefore we need to find some very clever and smart ways of handling this,” Kumar said.
Speaking at a post-budget conference organised jointly by industry body CII and Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), he warned however that any attempt to find a quick fix solution through a cut-paste model from abroad or any variety will not succeed. There is a need to work together to handle this ‘acute problem’, he said. Kumar further said: “Young people are off course, are not satisfied with what they have on the ground. Their aspirations are running miles ahead of the ground reality.”
“And that is the fact. I don't think that we are suffering from unemployment. Perhaps it is not unemployment but underemployment or unsatisfactory employment that may be the real cause of this situation we are facing in our country.”