No quick fixes for India's jobs crisis

If policymakers pay attention to the needs of the country and act on them, the outcomes will be visible a decade from now-but doing nothing is not an option

After dismissing all adverse reports on employment for a long time, the government finally acknowledged, in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget speech, that it has an unemployment problem. The issue of job creation and unemployment also received plenty of attention in the Economic Survey brought out by the chief economic adviser.

In her Budget speech, the FM announced five schemes — most of which entailed offering incentives to employers if the latter decided to hire more employees. One scheme was particularly interesting. The FM wants the top 500 companies to hire and train interns.  The interns