To fix unemployment, fix the economy first
This article argues that India's unemployment crisis cannot be solved by education reform alone and requires fundamental structural changes to the economy. It warns that the aggressive adoption of AI to boost productivity may further decrease employment elasticity, worsening the job market for India's youth.
Why it matters
It highlights the tension between pursuing technological efficiency and the necessity of creating mass employment in a country with a massive youth population.
T he Cockroach Janta Party’s movement has highlighted the political urgency for reforming the economy to create more employment for India’s youth. Fixing the education system alone will not solve the unemployment problem. The basic structure of the economy must be reformed.
China and India, the only two countries in the world with populations exceeding one billion, have the greatest need for meaningful employment. If citizens are not fully employed, and incomes of masses do not rise, their economies cannot grow. China has done much better than India in this regard; the per capita income of Chinese citizens has risen roughly eight times faster than Indians’ in the last 30 years.
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