India Today Conclave 2018: Jayant Sinha defends govt's employment initiatives, Congress says no jobs on ground

India's GDP growth has risen to 7.2 per cent in December quarter but a huge chunk of population is still out of jobs. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha says the job scenario has improved significantly, and that the unavailability of the proper data on all sectors gives an unclear picture about the actual job numbers. The Opposition says the sector-wise growth numbers can be fascinating, but ground reality needs to change to bring in the 65 per cent young India under a proper employment category.
 
On the first session of India Today Conclave 2018 on Thursday, a panel of experts discussed the most pressing issue of employment.
 
Issue is not jobs but missing data: Sinha
 
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said though millions of jobs are being created due to government's initiatives, many sectors are not even covered while compiling such data. "It's not about jobs, it's about data. Though the Niti Aayog is doing a good job on the job data, the fact is we are not picking all jobs happening in the country. You have seen the EPFO study, 6-7 million jobs are being created through the EPFO. Through Mudra, we have disbursed around 4-lakh crore loans to about 10 crore people, which is micro-entrepreneurship, self-employment and productive enterprise," said Jayant Sinha.
 
Sinha also said due to improper data picking, many jobs are not even covered when it comes to compiling job data. "Ola and Uber are employing close to a million self-employing drivers, which no data has picked up. There is a tremendous amount of job-creation upsurge happening in the country. But, it is not happening in the traditional economy, which is happening around the world. It's happening in the new economy, and entrepreneurship."
 
India is not producing enough jobs: Sachin Pilot  
 
Congress leader Sachin Pilot said the job scenario is not about what parties in power and Opposition tell. "The EPFO will give one data, while 'Ghosh and Ghosh' will give another. The point is retailers, and people in the agricultural system are underemployed or unemployed," he said.
 
Sachin Pilot said the country's median age is 27, and 40 per cent of the people seeking jobs are not skilled enough. "They need to be trained. The problem is not the data but lesser skill development." He also said the unskilled youths are going to be a burden on the economy. "It's about policy making. If exports are down, and the agri income is half, you can't attract investment and jobs creation. The growth is numerical. The fact is what we are not doing enough to produce jobs," he added.
 
Suggesting solutions to this big problem, Sachin said the government has to come out of the denial mode. "Also, link industry to institutions. In skill India, money is being allocated but the execution is shoddy. The young are at the receiving end," he said.
 
India's 34.1 per cent of the population is between 17 and 29. And about 1.18 million of them are unemployed. Jayant Sinha said the government recognises its promises to the people and has set such high aspiration as far as jobs are concerned. "That's why we created the skill development ministry. Every proposal that goes to cabinet has a section of the number of jobs we are going to create. Are we creating enough jobs? We have got a work to do." He said India is a 2.5-trillion dollar economy and it's not possible in 3-4 years to meet all those demands.