Govt says it can't provide jobs to all, asks IITians to take lead

Union ministers Smriti Irani, Jayant Sinha were speaking at India Economic Summit

The government can't provide jobs to everyone entering the labour force at a time when two out of every three Indians are aged below 35 years, students at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi have been told.

Textile Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of State of Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Wednesday told students and alumni at one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the country that IITs should produce more entrepreneurs who do not focus on just being handed over a job.

They were speaking at an interactive session that was part of the 33rd India Economic Summit (IES), which is being jointly organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

More than 800 million Indians are currently aged below 35 years and today's youth have to turn themselves into entrepreneurs if they intend to take advantage of India's massive demographic dividend, said Irani.

She added that an upwardly mobile population and growing opportunities have meant that children have increasingly started relinquishing the trades of their ancestors such as handloom weaving, which may set off massive loss in cultural heritage.

Irani also said the Textile ministry is focusing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that make up the bulk of the textile sector. Within this month, the ministry is taking 15 national banks to more than 400 textile clusters to promote the opening of bank accounts.

On the other hand, the government is focused on facilitating job growth in the country and is taking measures on it, Sinha said.

"In the past 3 years, India has been witness to Reforms 3.0. This is the third wave of major reforms in the economy after the 1991 era of liberalisation and those initiated during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government," he said.

Present at the venue as a panellist, Hari S Bhartia, founder and co-chairman of Jubilant Bhartia group said technological disruptions are churning the flex in the job market as never before.

"I have 1,100 pizza outlets. Now, most orders are placed online and as a result of this, the requirement of 2 people manning telephones at every outlet has gone away, leading to a loss of 2,200 jobs", he said.

The Delhi IIT consistently ranks among the top institutes in the country and has produced half of the 12 billionaires who came out of 20 IIT centres across India.

More than 650 leaders from 35 countries are taking part in IES this year.

The summit that had chosen 'Creating Indian Narratives on Global Challenges' as its theme, will help the global business community learn about India's reform programme from key members of the Cabinet, the WEF said in a statement.

It is being co-chaired by Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga, Wellspun CEO Dipali Goenka, Railways and coal minister Piyush Goyal and Textile Minister Smriti Irani, among others.

Besides them, top policymakers will include Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.