Govt can't address unemployment problem: Chief Economic Advisor
New Delhi: During the launch of the "India Employment Report 2024: Youth Employment, Education, and Skills," Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran asserted on Tuesday that it is misguided to expect the government to single-handedly address all social and economic challenges, including unemployment. Ironically, his remarks came while introducing the report co-authored by the International Labour Organisation and The Institute for Human Development.
Nageswaran, as reported by The Hindu, questioned the extent to which the government could intervene in employment matters "short of hiring more itself."
"In the normal world, it is the commercial sector that needs to take the lead in hiring," he argued, while also highlighting government initiatives such as the Skill India Mission.
To emphasize his point, the Chief Economic Advisor referred to the protagonist of the satirical film from the 1970s, Mohammed bin Tughlaq, stating, "For unemployment, he simply says, 'Look, all I will do is I’ll keep talking on every dais and stage that we have to solve the unemployment problem, and that is my contribution to solving the unemployment problem. Because this is not something I can address.'"
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The report unveiled by Nageswaran highlighted that "Employment is dominated by poor-quality employment in the informal sector and informal employment," with "Wages and earnings stagnant or declining."
In an analysis for The Wire, economist Santosh Mehrotra criticized the Narendra Modi government and associated economists for allegedly misleading the public about India's job market instead of addressing the underlying issues.
Despite Nageswaran's perspective, concerns persist regarding the Modi government's ability to fulfill its pre-election promise of creating one crore jobs for the youth. This pledge was made by Modi before assuming office as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
