High growth achieved by India not possible without job creation: Amitabh Kant

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on April 17 said India has been growing at more than 7 per cent rate and this could not have been achieved without adequate job creation.

Speaking on the sidelines of a PHD Chambers of Commerce event, Kant said that when non-NDA ruled states like Karnataka and West Bengal are claiming that jobs are being created, then it was not possible that at all India level, employment is not being generated.

"How is it possible that we are having 7.5 per cent growth and jobs are not being created? It is not possible.

"... If West Bengal and Karnataka are saying that jobs have been created in their respective states, then how it is possible that at the national level there is no employment generation," he pointed out.

Recently, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also stoutly defended the growth data saying an economy cannot be growing at 7-8 per cent without creating jobs.

He had also stated that no major social agitation indicates it hasn't been jobless growth.

Kant's statement comes against the backdrop of a report by Azim Premji University suggesting that employment opportunities declined and 5 million men lost their jobs between 2016 and 2018.

The decline in job opportunities coincided with demonetisation in November 2016, although no direct causal relationship can be established based only on these trends, the State of Working India-2019 (SWI) report said.

According to a leaked National Sample Survey Office's (NSSO's) periodic labour force survey (PLFS) report, India's unemployment rate had hit a 45-year high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18.

Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had recently expressed doubts over Indian economy growing at 7 per cent when not enough jobs were being created and had said the current cloud over the GDP numbers must be cleared by appointing an impartial body to look at the data.

Kant said that India needs to accelerate its growth rate from 7 per cent to 10 per cent.

He said India in the next three years will be amongst the top 25 countries in the ease of doing business ranking of the World Bank.

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Goods and Services Tax (GST) and RERA were major reforms undertaken by the Modi government, Kant said, adding that "real impact of these reforms will start reflecting in next two years."

The Niti Aayog CEO also pitched for opening up of mining and coal sectors for boost job creation.