India Must Create 8 Mn Jobs Annually To Realise Its 2047 Development Vision: CEA

(MENAFN- KNN India) New Delhi, April 22 (KNN) India needs to create at least 8 million jobs annually for the next 10-12 years and increase manufacturing's share of GDP to realise its vision of becoming a developed nation by 2047, according to V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA), Government of India.

Speaking at the Columbia India Summit 2025 hosted by the Deepak and Neera Raj Centre on Indian Economic Policies at Columbia University, Nageswaran highlighted the challenging global environment India faces in its development journey.

"The external environment is not going to be so benign for the next 10-20 years as one might have had in the last 30 years, starting from 1990 or so," he stated.

Nageswaran emphasised that India must navigate complex challenges including artificial intelligence, technology, and robotics-obstacles that developed countries did not encounter during their developmental phases.

He expressed particular concern about AI potentially threatening entry-level and IT-enabled service positions, noting that policymakers must find "the right balance between labour-centric policies and technology."
For India to achieve its "Viksit Bharat" (Developed India) vision by its independence centennial in 2047, Nageswaran stressed the importance of integrating Indian businesses into global value chains while developing a robust small and medium enterprise sector.

"Countries that became manufacturing powerhouses did not do so without having a viable small and medium enterprise sector," he observed.

The CEA pointed out that India either needs to increase investment rates or maximise efficiency from existing investments, particularly as global capital flows face disruption from ongoing international conflicts.

While acknowledging that external trade remains important for boosting domestic innovation and growth potential, he cautioned that its contribution to GDP growth has diminished over time, falling from 40 percent in the pre-2008 crisis period to 20 percent in the following decade.

Despite these challenges, Nageswaran noted that India has maintained an average growth rate exceeding 8 percent in the three years following the COVID-19 pandemic.

While sustaining this rate would be difficult, he suggested that maintaining 6.5 percent growth sustainably over the next two decades, with opportunities to exceed 7 percent through domestic deregulation, would be a viable approach.

This assessment aligns with the UN Trade and Development's recent forecast projecting India's growth at 6.5 percent in 2025, supported by robust public spending and monetary easing, even as the global economy faces recessionary pressures.

"The task ahead for India is quite immense in a difficult and challenging global environment, but I think the policy determination and identification of priorities, as we have done with emphasis on deregulation, can enable us to maintain the growth advantage even in this difficult environment," Nageswaran concluded.

(KNN Bureau)

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