The jobs needed to reach the “Viksit Bharat” goal

• The Budget aims to strengthen long-term job creation and real wage growth in India.

• The 2024 Budget introduced Employment Linked Incentives (ELI) to create over four crore jobs over five years.

• The Prime Minister’s internship scheme saw significant traction in 2024, with 6.21 lakh applications for 1.27 lakh opportunities.

• More deliberation is needed on the types of jobs needed for a Viksit Bharat.

Impact of Climate Change

• India was the seventh most affected country by climate change in 2019, with adaptation costs of nearly $1 trillion by 2030.

• To meet net-zero targets by 2070, the Government must create and incentivise jobs that are “climate-resilient” by maximizing all “co-benefits”.

• This could involve providing state-subsidised e-rickshaws in about 6,00,000 villages, improving last-mile mobility, and accelerating achieving the 500GW non-fossil energy capacity target.

AI Resilience

• With the rise of generative AI, numerous jobs now have 50-plus% automation potential.

• Larger education and health budgets can plug the deficit of millions of healthcare professionals and teachers across states.

• Financing for the National Rural Livelihood Mission can facilitate global and urban market linkages of local products, crafts, and knowledge of farmers and artisans in rural India.

Being Aspiration-centric

• Rural youth continue to have low confidence due to deeper insecurities from poor foundational education and resource-deprived upbringing.

• Rapid infrastructure development, boosting productivity and value-addition for high import/export-share items, and rebranding the ‘rural’ can make offfarm jobs aspirational for India’s youth.

• The Centre can demonstrate greater commitment for long-term structural reforms to create these jobs.