Letters: Growth with a caveat

This is with reference to A V Rajwade's column "Central bank independence" (July 28). That economic growth should get precedence over inflation is good logic, but we should add some caveats in the Indian context. The benefit of growth should be experienced by all classes. With nearly eight per cent growth, India has an increasing numbers of the world's richest billionaires but it is also home to the largest number of poor. Growth has not been inclusive.

Besides, with 12 million people joining the ranks of the unemployed every year, growth should be accompanied by a high number of job opportunities. This has not happened so far. Job growth is skewed and mostly confined to the services sector, where only knowledge workers from urban and semi-urban areas get jobs, while a vast number in rural society, being undergraduates, keeps waiting.

According to a Nasscom study, 50 per cent of the jobs in the information and technology industry will be automated by 2025. This raises the risk of net job loss.

The Reserve Bank of India's cautious approach to interest rates is probably influenced by these considerations also.

Y G Chouksey Pune

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