Raising concerns over employment generation in the country, the former Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that India can move up from the 7.5% growth but that is not enough to create employment for about 12 million people coming into the labour market every year. He explained that the country’s growth can move up to maybe 10%, provide some kind of source of demand for the work. He also observed that India can do that but there is need to work on it.
On the reforms in the country, Rajan said that they are happening but more slowly than one would wish and that’s potentially the cost of getting political agreement. Noting that the world has become less receptive to exports, he said, ‘So if India becomes a manufacturing giant overnight, who’s going to buy its stuff? So, India needs to think about its pathway of growth, it will be different from China’s.’
On how quickly India can achieve 10% growth, former RBI Governor said that could happen after the general elections next year because reforms would now be put off. He added that reforms are likely to be put on the shelf till the next general elections but expressed hope that the country will move up to a higher plane of growth thereafter. The next general elections are scheduled in early 2019.
