Earlier
GDP was computed keeping 2004-05 as base year however in 2014 it was revised to
2011-12. This change is hugely debated questioning the credibility of the GDP
numbers. Nonetheless GDP numbers do not capture the real state of the economy,
New series of GDP calculation is improvement upon the old series and in any
case the new series is comparable to international series. The new methodology
is more consistent than the previous one.
Policy
makers are conscious enough of the fact that real GDP numbers do not capture
the state of the economy and also devising plans and policy which are actually
required.
Employment
generation:
Employment
generation is the biggest concern of the economy right now. Even though India
is the fastest growing economy in the world the situation on the employment
front is dismal. There is a demand of 8 million jobs every year but we are able
to generate only half a million, which is a tremendous backlog on employment
front. Reasons for it is technological obsolescence-because of which lots of
jobs are going out, second is labour laws, and third is skill issue.
It is
pertinent with respect to India that it learns few lessons from china model of
growth in which it not only grew at 8-10 % for 30 years, but also created
employment at the same time. India needs to learn from china on how capital
intensive industry can evolve in terms of creating more jobs.
People
are getting educated like never before in last decade. It is now the duty of the
state to guide young generation by skilling them to meet the demands of
contemporary global skill gap.
On the
rural side it is necessary to address variety of issues that are creating a
potential problem in employment generation. The issues like MSP, Climate change
,MGNERGA wages etc needs to be dealt in a sensible way so that the employment
is not displaced to urban areas cresting whole set of new problems. It is very
important to address these issues to say that growth rate of GDP and employment
generation are going in tandem.
