Tap non-IT sectors for jobs: ESCAP
An UN body has asked India to look beyond IT sector for creating jobs for its growing labour force.
An UN body has asked India to look beyond IT sector for creating jobs for its growing labour force.
"Can the revolution in the Information Technology sector in India resolve India's unemployment problems and the other ills in its labour markets? Certainly not," the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific survey said on Thursday.
ESCAP, a regional arm of the United Nations, said that IT sector accounts for less than one per cent of GDP in India and employs fewer than one million people out of a total labour force of 450 million, "so the sector's quantitative significance is limited", it said.
Given its growing labour force, India has to think beyond the IT sector and pay attention to the need of non-elite strata of the society and use agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors for job creation.
Stating that some unemployment issues are policy-induced and others emanate from cultural and political ideologies, the survey suggested introduction of sound macro-economic policies supported by credible labour market policies and reforms.
"A distortion-free, flexible labour market would permit resources to be reallocated efficiently at times of external and policy-induced shocks," it said.
In a globalised economy the ability of the public sector to generate adequate employment on its own is limited so it should provide a conducive environment for the private sector to create job opportunities.
