Unprecedented positivity about industry, investment: Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the nature of jobs has been changing as the government has been supporting the emerging sectors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said there is unprecedented positivity about industry and investment in India citing his meetings with the chief executive officers of leading global companies such as Walmart and Apple.
“FDI [Foreign Direct Investment] and the record exports have been creating employment opportunities in every corner of India,” said Modi in his virtual address to over 71,000 recruits at the fourth edition of “Rozgar Mela”.
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He referred to Employees Provident Fund Organisation’s net payroll figures and said over 45 million people have got jobs since 2018-19 as formal employment has been growing.
Modi, who launched the “Rozgar Mela” in October for the recruitment of one million people, said the nature of jobs has been changing as the government has been supporting the emerging sectors.
He said there has been a revolution in the start-up sector. Modi added the number of start-ups has risen to nearly 100,000 from a few hundred before 2014 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power. Modi said they are estimated to have provided a minimum of one million jobs.
He said the length of rural roads has risen to 7.25 lakh km from 4 lakh km while the number of airports has gone up from 74 to nearly 150. Modi said the construction of over 40 million concrete houses under the government’s housing scheme for the poor has created employment opportunities.
He said that the number of universities has grown to 1,100 from around 720 in 2014. He added there are now 700 medical colleges compared to 400 in 2014.
He said 40,000 km of rail lines were electrified compared to 20,000 km in the previous decades. He added 500,000 common service centres in the villages are providing jobs in rural areas. “More than 30,000 Panchayat Bhawans have been constructed in villages...90 million households have been connected with piped water. All are creating employment at a large scale.”
Modi credited changes his government introduced in the recruitment system for ending the possibility of corruption and nepotism. He said the entire process—from applying for jobs to the announcement of results—has been made online.
He said recruitments the government has made over the last nine years have been faster, transparent, and unbiased. “The Staff Selection Board would roughly take 15-18 months to onboard the new recruits whereas today it takes only six to eight months. The tedious process of recruitment earlier—from acquiring the application forms to submitting them via post—has now been simplified by making it online...a provision for self-attestation of documents has also been introduced.”
Modi said interviews for Group C, involving supervisory as well as operative tasks, and Group D posts for routine duties have also been abolished. He called the “extermination of nepotism from the entire process” its biggest benefit.
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Modi also cited initiatives the government has taken to ease access to services. “...government policies have been made keeping in mind the employment possibilities. Initiatives in infrastructure, rural push or expansion of the basic needs of life... every policy of the government is creating new opportunities for the youth.”
In a tweet in Hindi, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh hit out at Modi for destroying governance by making it personal and lowering its level through job fairs. “It seems as if he [Modi] created these jobs and he will pay those getting these jobs and that is why job seekers should express their gratitude.” He said the job seekers know that the Prime Minister has destroyed jobs in both government and private sectors through measures such as demonetisation and indiscriminate privatisation of public sector undertakings.
