“Creating jobs is a central challenge and a serious crisis; we need to do more” : Praveen Chakravarty

Chennai : “Creating jobs is a central challenge and a serious crisis; we need to do more,” said Praveen Chakravarty, senior fellow, IDFC Institute, during a panel discussion on The Union Budget 2017 organized by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy.

“The Economic Survey indicated job creation in the leather and textile segments but there was no mention about it in the Finance Minister’s speech. With technology and robotics creating negative shock, we need to do more,” he added.

The Survey that was tabled in the Parliament earlier this week highlighted creating jobs in a chapter titled, “Clothes and Shoes: Can India Reclaim Low Skill Manufacturing?”

Apparel and leather: The apparels and leather sectors offer tremendous opportunities for creation of jobs, especially for women.

C.V.S. Krishnakumar, member of Taxation Committee, South Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said implementation of skill development would take time.

“They have identified areas for skill development in this budget. Even last year, they spoke about this but what is being done is not known. The priorities have been identified but implementation will take time,” he added. R. Srinivasan, Associate Professor in Econometrics, University of Madras, said that currently the talk is of growth without employment.

When Raghavan Srinivasan, Editor, The Hindu BusinessLine , asked about the hits and misses in the Union Budget, Mr. Chakravarthy said Rs. 15 lakh crore of bad assets clogging up the pipe in corporate and bank balance sheets could have got more attention. He suggested that the solution to this would be freeing up bad assets through public sale or auction.

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