The writer is Senior Fellow, Brookings India and member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister
A problem of measurement
There is neither credible evidence of a jobs crisis in India, nor of its absence.
Modi 2.0 presents a new window of opportunity to usher in some fundamental reforms for the Indian economy. A modern dynamic economy requires a robust statistical system to provide precise and real time estimates of several critical indicators. One of these is unemployment — which has been at the heart of prolonged acrimonious public debate in India for several years. Now is the time to move beyond the politics of unemployment to the real and pressing issue of measurement of unemployment. In 2016-17, the government of India, quite rightly so, was of the view that the existing frequency of measuring key unemployment and employment indicators was not adequate for the design of economic policies. There was a need for more timely and periodic measures — a quarterly estimate in urban areas and an annual estimate in rural areas — the “Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)”. A committee of senior bureaucrats, economists and business leaders was constituted to look into this and an all-India PLFS survey was undertaken.
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