Recently, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was invited to the popular Strategic Minds podcast, where he opened up about the current economic situation of India as well as the job scenario. With the population explosion, there is a huge need for employment for Indian citizens. The government sector is not enough to provide employment to everyone. On the other hand, presently, there aren't enough job opportunities in the private sector.
Rajan was the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). During his tenure at the RBI in 2015, he became the Vice-Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements. Between 2003 and 2006, he was the chief economist and director of research at the International Monetary Fund.
Raghuram Rajan co-authored Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists with Luigi Zingales in 2003. Presently, he is the Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the co-author (with Rohit Lamba) of Breaking the Mold: India's Untraveled Path to Prosperity.
Raghuram Rajan's Take on the Job Market
In a recent episode of the Strategic Minds podcast, the veteran Indian economist stated, "The private sector, as well as certain parts of the public sector, must expand and create employment opportunities."
On being asked about the demand for Government jobs, Rajan admitted that government jobs were not preferred in the 1990s and early 2000s. Although, currently young people are gradually gaining a lot of interest in the government sector as the private sector in India is anyway not sufficient to provide jobs to everyone.
In the podcast, the economist also stated that the Government should think carefully before spending its funds on job generation. They should see if it's fruitful that their subsidies spend $10 billion in the chip industries, which are going to employ very few people anyway. Or should the focus be on building more Engineering colleges, developing the infrastructure of scientific laboratories, etc, to ensure more employment?
So, priority setting in utilizing the allocated funds is the need of the hour, along with a proper plan of action.
To expand the Indian job market, the Government needs to do strategic planning and execution, as Rajan said.
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