Following the union budget 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party has applauded measures taken by the government for creating jobs in the next five years. In a panel discussion at India Today-Business Today budget roundtable 2024, Prof Gourav Vallabh, Professor of finance and leader, BJP, said that the budget is not of political outcome but of economic outcome.
“It is not the political outcome, but the economic outcome that was there in the economy, this budget was on that. Many times opposition used to say that the budget should be focused on employment, if I line up this budget, then the budget is focused on employment creating 4.1 crore employment putting ₹2 lakh crore for the employment via 5 schemes,” says Vallabh.
According to Vallabh, the demographic dividend of our country, as well as an economic survey had also pointed out that 80 lakh jobs in the non-farm sector have to be created. In the next five years, 4.1 crore jobs are already secured, observes Vallabh.
“This budget is purely focused on employment, improving the quality of employment, focusing on the manufacturing and services sector, which are creating employment for the people of our country. So this budget is all about employment, full employment, sustainable employment and employment for the future,” says Vallabh.
According to Vallabh, the government is taking all the right steps to making India third-largest economy by 2030.
The NDA government has announced a slew of schemes including internships in Fortune 500 companies for a period of one year in a bid to improve employment that had been a sore point for the incumbent in the 2024 general elections.
However, Criticising the government’s employment, Salman Soz, National Spokesperson and Senior Leader, Congress says that India will require at least 18 crore jobs to reach the global average. “ You have to think about labor force participation. What that means is if you have a job or if you're looking for a job, that is the labor force participation. India is 10 percentage points below the global average, roughly 10 percentage points below the global average and 20 percentage points behind China. If India has to reach global average of labour force participation, we need to have the scope of creation of an additional 18 Crore jobs today just to reach the global avatar,” says Soz, adding that the government should talk about climate finance and energy instead of focusing on Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.
According to Krishna Prasad Tenneti, Lok Sabha MP, TDP, it is very difficult to separate politics from economics. “It's very difficult to separate politics from economics. There was an interim budget in February 2024. And the February 2024 budget was economical but not political,” says Tenneti.
Some Congress-led states, according to Tenneti, have failed to deliver the promises. “So promising is not important at all in politics. Promises before politics, it's very simple to do. But actually the citizen delivering mechanism is there with you, It is very, very important for you to calibrate. Before you make the promises,” says Tenneti.
Meanwhile, While, Sushmita Dev, MP and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress says that she doesn’t blame Bihar and Andhra Pradesh for asking for incentives, she accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of decimating every government institution.