Jobless growth turning into job-loss growth: Manmohan Singh

Jobless growth turning into  job-loss growth: Manmohan Singh

New Delhi: Pointing to domestic challenges like agrarian crisis, declining employment opportunities and prevalence of divisive forces, former prime minister Manmohan Singh here on Sunday painted a grim picture of the Indian economy and said the jobless growth was fast turning into the “jobloss growth”. Addressing a convocation at the Delhi School of Management, Singh blamed the “slipshod” implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) for damaging the vibrant small and unorganised sector.

“The domestic challenges of our economy are daunting in their complexity and devastating in their impact on society. The grave agrarian crisis, the declining employment opportunities, the pervasive environmental degradation and above all the divisive forces at work are obvious,” he said. The renowned economist said farmers’ suicide and frequent agitations reflected the “structural imbalances in our economy” and called for a serious in-depth analysis and political will to address them. “Knee-jerk reactions and off the cuff announcements of grandiose schemes and unproductive projects have failed to lift the economy to its potential,” he said. Without naming the Narendra Modi government, he said the country’s jobless growth was fast slipping into ‘job-loss growth’ and together with rural indebtedness and urban chaos was making youth restless. “The small and unorganised sectors, which were vibrant and contributing to generation of wealth and employment opportunities, have suffered in the wake of disastrous demonetisation and slipshod introduction and implementation of the GST,” said Singh, a vehement critic of the cash cull launched by Prime Minister Modi on November 8, 2016. (IANS)

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