'Job creation not at cost of manufacturing'

NEW DELHI: Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said manufacturing sector cannot be bypassed for creating additional job opportunities in the economy. He said strategies need to be laid down to ensure that the slowdown in growth of employment seen in the manufacturing sector is reversed as the country should not depend on services sector revolution alone to create more employment in the country. Speaking on a wide range of issues facing the economy at the Economic Editors' Conference here today, Mr Ahluwalia said that one of the biggest challenges before the country pertained to the problem of unemployment, particularly disguised unemployment. He pointed out that while job-creation programmes such as Food For Work would create jobs for the short term, the challenge lay in creating quality jobs for the educated mass. The real success in employment growth would not come from minimum wage jobs. Mr Ahluwalia added that increase in jobs in the manufacturing sector had not kept pace with the overall growth in the sector and that was a cause for concern. He said that he did not agree with the view that India can sustain growth rate on the basis of services-led revolution. Manufacturing cannot be bypassed for creation of new jobs, he said. The Plan Panel chief said the mid-term appraisal will look at the constraints holding back growth in employment in key sectors such as manufacturing. Mr Ahluwalia further stated that improving governance and public knowledge was the key to ensuring better implementation of projects and plugging leakages of funds from programmes. He said the demand for good governance should come from the people. Admitting that there were leakages in funds in public projects, Mr Ahluwalia said, Public knowledge of projects and programmes of government is more important than bureaucratic control for monitoring the progress of projects. He added that although the Planning Commission could monitor implementation of the projects of the central government, it was not in a position to monitor individual states. The mid term appraisal of the 10th plan currently underway would also address how resources could be transferred to empower the village level organisations, he said. On addressing general deficiencies in implementation of projects and programmes, Mr Ahuwalia said that the mid-term appraisal would try to focus on improving delivery efficiencies. He further stated that there was a need to formulate new method of evaluation progress of projects. Currently progress is measured on the basis of money spent on the project.

'Job creation not at cost of manufacturing'

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said manufacturing sector cannot be bypassed for creating additional job opportunities in the economy.

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