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Fast-growing India faces up to its jobs crisis
The latest budget aims to kick-start jobs growth, but still leaves more to do.
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Students attend a coaching class training them to secure government jobs, in Prayagraj, India, on June 21, 2024.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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On July 16, about 25,000 job-seekers thronged a venue at Mumbai airport to apply for 2,216 vacancies at Air India, for which walk-in interviews were to be conducted. This sort of incident has been common in India in recent years, where there have been hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of applicants for every vacancy in a range of occupations, especially public services such as the police and the railways.
What is striking is that this is happening in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the last fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, was a stunning 8.2 per cent. The International Monetary Fund forecasts growth in the current fiscal year at 7 per cent – again, among the best in the world.
