India needs to find vocations least impacted by AI: CEA Nageswaran

India needs to find vocations that will be least impacted by artificial intelligence (AI) and make it “fashionable” for students to adopt them, in a bid to combat the disruptive impact of AI on job creation, said Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Tuesday.

 

“India needs to generate eight million jobs annually, with the demographic sweet spot remaining for the next 10–15 years. China has occupied a huge strategic space in manufacturing, so we do have a formidable problem. [Then] how do we motivate students to take up jobs that will be least disrupted by AI? We need to find vocations like elder care, counselling, plumbing, etc. This is an issue of making these jobs respectable and fashionable,” said Nageswaran while addressing a webinar titled AI and Policy Choices for Job Creation, organised by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). 

He further added that AI is moving in an automation-centric direction, which is likely to replace labour, instead of taking a human-centric approach. 

“Productivity improvements may happen [due to AI], but who gains from it? This is a question for both developed and developing countries,” he added.

 

Nageswaran said that in India, large capital-intensive companies will become even more capital-intensive and less prone to hiring. “Job creation prospects will be affected. Therefore, intra-country inequality will also become a challenge,” he added.

 

Also addressing the webinar, Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu echoed similar views and said that AI will be disruptive for developing countries like India if it moves in the direction of automation rather than in a human-complementary direction.

 

“Many of the developing countries in the world will be harmed by it because human resources — i.e., middle-skilled workers — are still their comparative advantage. [So] a lot of pathways followed by South-East Asian economies or India will be closed with true advances in AI,” said Acemoglu.

 

Besides listing the positive impact of AI, Nageswaran said it can help India take education to remote corners of the country and “reimagine” the rote-learning culture. It can also help extend health services to the remotest areas of the country, as the number of health professionals is not adequate in many regions, he added.